- 


# 


ANI) 

OTHER  PROBLEMS  II  THEOLOGY 

AND  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS. 


BY 

/ 

JOHN  STEINFORT  KEDNEY,  D.  D. 


Professor  of  Divinity  in  Seabury  Divinity  School;  Author  of  “Hegel’s 
..Esthetics, “Christian  Doctrine  Harmonized,”  “The 
Beautiful  and  the  Subleue,”  Etc. 


CHICAGO: 

S.  C.  GRIGGS  AND  COMPANY. 

1891. 


Copyright,  1S91, 

By  S.  C  GRIGGS  &  COMPANY. 


PRESS  OF  KNIGHT,  LEONARD  &  CO.,  CHICAGO. 


PREFACE. 


The  first  five  of  the  Lectures  in  this 
volume  were  delivered  in  December,  1890, 
before  the  students  of  the  “  Episcopal  Theo¬ 
logical  Seminary  ”  at  Cambridge,  Massachu¬ 
setts,  and  others,  at  the  request  of  the 
Trustees  of  that  Institution.  The  topics  were 
selected  as  such  in  which  it  was  thought 
that  Theology  as  a  unified  system  was  capable 
of  and  might  receive  development  and  ad¬ 
vance  ;  or  as  touched  practical  questions  of 
moment,  and  under  discussion  at  the  present 
day. 

The  sixth  lecture  was  delivered  in  the  year 
1889  before  the  a  Summer  School  of  Theology” 
at  Sewanee,  Tennessee,  and  has  been  printed 
in  the  “  Magazine  of  Christian  Literature  ”  for 
November,  1890.  It  is  here  appended  as 
opening  up  a  fruitful  subject  for  further 
treatment. 


August,  1891. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/rnenschristiother00kedn_0 


CONTENTS. 


LECTURE  I. 

The  question  of  Jesus’  knowledge,  and 

OF  INSPIRATION,  AS  AFFECTED  BY  THE 
DOCTRINE  OF  THE  KENOSIS  1 

LECTURE  II. 

The  doctrine  of  atonement  .  .  .  33 

LECTURE  III. 

The  possibilities  of  the  future,  as  de¬ 
termining  THE  MODE  OF  HUMAN  MORAL 
ACTIVITY  ......  66 

LECTURE  IV. 

The  functions  of  the  Christian  ministry  105 

LECTURE  V. 

The  doctrine  of  “A  nature  in  God”  .  140 

LECTURE  VI. 

The  impotence  and  the  right  use  of 

IMAGINATION  IN  DEALING  WITH  CHRIS¬ 
TIAN  DOCTRINE . 168 


LECTURE  I. 


THE  QUESTION  OF  JESUS*  KNOWLEDGE,  AND 

OF  INSPIRATION,  AS  AFFECTED  BY  THE 

DOCTRINE  OF  THE  KENOSIS.* 

The  question  has  arisen  afresh  in  our  day 
of  the  extent  of  the  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ 
before  his  death  ;  or,  as  some  minds  state  it 
to  themselves,  the  extent  of  his  ignorance. 
This  is  an  old  question,  and  on  some  occasion 
or  other,  and  in  some  shape  or  other,  has 
come  up  frequently  in  the  history  of  Christian 
thought.  We  are  reminded  of  the  controver¬ 
sies  and  struggles  of  the  early  days,  through 
which  the  Christian  church  found  itself,  at 
length,  able  and  authorized  to  asseverate,  in 
terms,  the  doctrine  of  our  Lord’s  true  human- 

*  One  reason  why  this  was  selected  as  the  topic  for  a  lecture  was  the  stir 
made  among  theologians  by  the  appearance  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gore’s  article  on 
Inspiration  in  the  book  entitled  “ Lux  Mundi."  Rut  I  wrote  the  lecture 
before  reading  the  article,  that  my  own  treatment  might  be  more  dispassion¬ 
ate.  I  found  in  Mr.  Gore’s  disquisition  much  to  sympathize  with,  and  some 
things  to  criticise.  Those  who  read  both  will  see  that  I  have  gone  into  the 
matter  more  deeply,  and  have  attempted  an  analysis  that  it  did  not  come 
within  his  immediate  design  to  make.  The  whole  subject  receives  larger 
treatment  in  chapters  18,  19,  20  and  23  of  the  second  volume  of  my  vork 
“Christian  Doctrine  Harmonized,”  in  which  last  chapter,  likewise,  will  be 
found  the  true  philosophy  of  Christian  prayer  and  a  vindication  of  the  thesis 
that  the  entire  cosmic  movement  is  ruled  by  the  requirements  of  God’s  moral 
government,  in  which  alone  is  its  final  cause. 


2 


MENS  CHRIST!. 


ity.  The  need  which  was  first  apparent  in 
those  times  to  affirm  against  all  impugners  the 
doctrine  of  his  divinity  had  led  many,  in  order 
to  maintain  it,  to  ignore,  or  not  to  perceive, 
what  was  essential  in  the  definition  of  his 
humanity ;  and  only  step  by  step  were  those 
forms  of  doctrine  fenced  off  which  virtually 
denied  his  humanity  by  impairing  the  notion 
of  what  essential  humanity  is.  And  the  diffi¬ 
culties  for  the  mind  which  are  found  in  the 
entire  problem,  wherein  contrasts  have  to  be 
reconciled,  have  always  induced  a  predisposi¬ 
tion  to  cut  short  the  enquiry  by  emphasizing 
the  Divinity  to  such  an  extent  as  to  lose  sight 
of  the  truth  that  there  was  and  must  have  been 
a  kenosis,  or  limitation  of  the  divine  element 
in  Jesus’  personality,  or  to  pare  away  this  latter 
doctrine  unduly.  Thus,  then  and  ever  since, 
there  has  been  manifest  a  disposition  to  fall 
back  upon  the  monophysitic  ground,  and  to 
make  assertions,  if  which  are  true,  the  doctrine 
of  his  humanity  has  undergone  degradation, 
and  thereby  the  definition  of  his  divinity 
itself  has  been  impaired,  as  I  shall  presently 
proceed  to  show. 

But  the  conciliar  decisions  of  the  church  are 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


3 


with  us  in  this  statement.  They  will  bear  the 
scrutiny  of  speculative  thinking,  and  may  on 
this  account  be  safely  trusted,  as  well  as  because 
they  represent  the  clarified  Christian  con¬ 
sciousness,  and  thus  have  objective  authority. 
These,  in  terms  suited  to  the  exigencies  of  their 
times,  declared  the  doctrine  of  our  Lord’s  com¬ 
plete  humanity,  and  defined  it  against  the 
immediate  impugners.  But  humanity  cannot 
be  defined  in  few  words,  and  new  and  subtle 
enquiries  still  started  up  ;  and  as  each  age  had 
to  do  its  own  thinking  to  appropriate  that  of  its 
predecessors,  the  disposition  still  remained  to 
torture  the  definition  of  his  humanity  to  fit  the 
supposed  requirements  of  his  divinity,  and  it 
remains  still.  Not  a  year  passes  in  which  may 
not  be  found  in  the  religious  periodicals  utter¬ 
ances,  honestly  meant  to  do  honor  to  our  Lord 
Christ,  which  are  only  self-consistent  on  the 
presuppositions  of  a  monophysitic  scheme  of 
doctrine,  and,  in  some  cases,  those  of  the  Nesto- 
rian  scheme.  This  question,  then,  of  the 
extent  of  Jesus’  knowledge,  or  the  extent  of 
his  ignorance  (since  it  has  to  be  answered  so  far 
as  is  needful  to  avoid  the  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  reaching  a  harmonized  theologic  system), 


4 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


requires  for  its  elucidation  and  sufficient  reply 
that  we  bring  up  for  examination  afresh  the 
doctrine  of  his  humanity  on  the  one  side,  and 
on  the  other  the  doctrine  of  kenosis,  or  the 
self-limitation  required  for  the  Incarnation. 

Man  is  a  spiritual  soul — as  soul  related  to 
the  material  universe,  as  spiritual  soul  related 
to  pure  spirit — thus  related  on  the  one  side  to 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  as  pure  spirit, 
and  on  the  other  side  to  the  Divine  Doxa,  as 
synthesized  by  spirit.  As  made  in  the  image 
of  God,  and  his  highest  possible  creature,  he  is 
morally  free,  and  comes,  sooner  or  later,  to 
know  himself  to  be  all  this.  Allowing  every¬ 
thing  else  to  determinism,  he  is  his  own  creator 
as  to  the  moral  form,  and  must  come  up  to  all 
the  requirements  of  a  moral  being.  To  attain 
real  freedom,  and  the  perfect  liberty  required 
for  a  permanent  form  of  life,  he  must  undergo 
development,  in  which  his  own  will  is  an  effi¬ 
cient.  He  rises  out  of  the  abyss  of  the  uncon¬ 
scious,  quickened  by  a  divine  act,  and  is  at  the 
start  immortal,  because  he  is  moral,  and  has  to 
determine  his  moral  status  during  his  develop¬ 
ment,  which  is  both  physical  and  mental  as 
well  as  moral,  all  these  three  elements  of  it 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


5 


conditioning  each  other.  Tims  his  knowledge 
is  a  gradual  growth,  conditioned  by  all  these 
relations.  It  follows  and  is  graded  by  his 
experience,  and  constitutes  the  light  by  which 
he  frames  motives  or  ends  which  determine  his 
activity  and  hence  his  moral  form.  These  deci¬ 
sions  of  will  affect  immediately  the  content  of 
his  consciousness,  and  remotely,  and  perhaps 
immediately,  too,  his  physical  being.  These, 
then,  as  well  as  the  parallel  social  changes, 
become  part  of  his  environment,  and  thus  make 
more  complex  the  conditions  under  which  his 
moral  history  proceeds.  By  the  use  of  his 
freedom  the  content  of  his  intelligence  is 
affected.  It  would  not  be  difficult  to  show  that 
by  his  moral  recession,  or  wrong  choice  of  ends, 
his  being  is  impoverished  and  narrowed,  and 
that  by  his  right  choice  and  moral  advance  it 
is  enriched  and  amplified.  His  knowledge, 
then,  must  be  affected  accordingly.  In  the  one 
case,  some  springs  or  possibilities  of  knowledge 
may  dry  up ;  in  the  other  case,  they  may  be 
loosened  to  flow  more  freely  ;  or  new  ones  may 
be  started,  and  latent  possibilities  quickened  to 
become  realities.  In  the  case  of  the  right 
moral  progress,  the  knowledge  clarifies  itself, 


6 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


and  becomes  truer  and  truer.  Retrogressions 
become  less  and  less  likely  or  possible.  The 
avenues  of  his  complex  soul-structure,  through 
which  any  subtle,  mystical  influences  may 
reach  him,  become  freer  and  freer.  Thus  he  is 
gradually  enabled  to  hold  all  essential  truth  in 
proper  synthesis.  The  vibration  between  the 
a  priori  evidence  for  the  postulates  of  his  moral 
consciousness  and  history,  for  the  “  things 
unseen,"'  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other, 
the  a  posteriori  doubts  which  the  sensuous 
understanding  presents  (which  vibration  consti¬ 
tutes  his  trial,  and  measures  the  degree  of  his 
faith),  still  remains  as  the  condition  for  its  own 
ultimate  subsidence  ;  that  is,  the  victory  of  faith 
at  length  carries  the  subject  beyond  the  need  of 
this  trial  and  struggle,  and  the  vibration  slowly 
subsides.  Yet  his  trials,  and  the  consequent 
need  of  his  interior  vigor,  may  grow  more 
intense  and  require  the  uttermost  exercise  of 
his  persistence  toward  the  end,  and  thus,  by  this 
triumphing  persistence,  the  final  influx  of  vigor 
is  reached,  as  the  condition  for  the  removal  of 
all  his  doubts  and  trials. 

If  this  be  a  definition  of  humanity,  and  so 
far  a  description  of  the  essential  human  career, 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


7 


and  man’s  ideal  destiny  so  far  as  the  sojourn  on 
earth  is  concerned,  the  Son  of  God,  in  becoming 
human,  must  have  become,  must  have  passed 
through,  all  this.  If  he  missed  any  what  that 
is  to  befall  one  whose  moral  development  pro¬ 
ceeds  without  retrogression,  that  is,  is  sinless,  he 
missed  what  is  highest  and  finest  in  humanity, 
and  cannot  be  thought  to  have  been  truly  hu¬ 
man.  To  suppose  in  him  the  full  divine  con¬ 
sciousness  at  the  start  is  to  deny  the  fact  of  his 
human  development,  or  give  it  a  Doketic  loim. 
He  no  longer  appears  in  what  is  the  highest  hu¬ 
man  characteristic,  and  our  sense  ol  fellowship 
with  him  is  lost.  To  suppose  that  the  divine 
element  led  along  passively  the  human,  is  again 
to  degrade  the  latter,  and  lower  our  conception 
of  the  former.  The  Incarnation  shows,  in  its 
highest  definition,  as  an  exhibition  of  the  di¬ 
vine  love,  rather  than  as  an  exhibition  ot  the 
divine  power.  And  this  love  is  shown  in  his 
self-limitation,  which  made  Iris  sacrifice  ot  him¬ 
self  possible.  Hence  his  knowledge,  to  be  a 
true  human  knowledge,  must  have  been  at¬ 
tained,  as  ours  is  attained,  through  human  or¬ 
gans,  and  have  been,  as  ours,  a  gradual  growth. 
He  must  have  passed  through  every  phase  of 


8 


MENS  CHKISTI. 


human  consciousness,  except  as  it  has  been 
modified  by  the  contradiction, — even  the  in¬ 
fantile  one,  where  empirical  knowledge  exists 
not, — and  all  the  stages  whereby  the  results  of 
sensation,  perception,  conception  and  compre¬ 
hension  are  wrought  up  into  knowledge.  Infor¬ 
mation  as  to  facts  and  events  must  have  been 
gained  as  ours  is  gained,  and  through  the  same 
media.  He  was  determined  by  heredity,  through 
his  mother,  and  thus  retains  organic  connec¬ 
tion  with  the  human  race,  and  is  a  part  of  its 
history.  He  was  determined  also  by  his  en¬ 
vironment,  as  we  are,  and  showed  the  results  of 
it  in  his  mode  of  speaking.  His  education  and 
experience  were  those  of  a  Jew. 

To  think  that  all  this  was  pretended,  or  a  dis¬ 
guise,  and  that  the  full  divine  consciousness 
existed  beneath,  and  that  omnipotence  was  vol¬ 
untarily  refrained  from  exercise,  is,  again,  either 
Doketism  or  a  form  of  Nestorianism.  The  hu¬ 
man  consciousness  is  either  pretended,  or  exists 
side  by  side  with  the  divine  one,  and  we  have 
a  double  personality  and  no  true  union. 

If,  then,  his  empirical  knowledge  was  gained 
as  ours  is,  how  rash  is  it  for  anyone  to  say  that 
it  was  unlimited,  or  to  make  any  arbitrary  limi- 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


9 


tation  ;  as  those  do  who  declare  that  ignorance 
can  only  be  predicated  of  him  as  pertaining  to 
the  few  occasions  when  he  confessed  it.  They 
who  do  so  cannot  explain  why  it  should  have 
been  confined  to  these  particulars  alone  ;  and  if 
they  fall  back  upon  the  a  priori  assumption  that 
his  divinity  must  be  thought  as  requiring  in 
him  unlimited  knowledge,  then  his  divine  con¬ 
sciousness  must  have  been  willfully  darkened, 
and  the  honesty  of  his  declaration  must  under¬ 
go  suspicion.  It  would  be  just  as  valid  an  ar¬ 
gument  or  assertion  for  one  who  declares  the 
contrary  to  fall  back  upon  the  a  priori  ground 
of  his  humanity,  and  ask  to  be  shown  how  any 
superhuman  knowledge  was  possible  unless  by 
dividing  his  consciousness  and  thinking  him  as 
living  a  double  life.  It  is  as  valid  to  assume 
his  human  ignorance  as  it  is  to  assume  his 
divine  omniscience.  Both  assertions  are  shal¬ 
low,  and  the  profounder  problem  is  to  show 
how  far  the  divine  consciousness  has  under¬ 
gone  limitation,  and  how  far  the  human  has 
undergone  modification,  expansion  and  exal¬ 
tation,  and  to  reconcile  these  in  a  consistent 
synthesis,  if  possible. 

The  endeavor  may  be  well  meant  to  do  honor 


10 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


to  our  Lord  as  divine  by  all  this  insistence  upon 
the  scantily  limited  extent  of  his  knowledge  ; 
but  it  fails  of  its  end,  for,  as  before,  his  divinity 
appears  in  a  profounder  definition  and  comes 
nearer  to  our  hearts  by  the  limitation  than  by 
the  exhibition  of  omniscience.  It  is  shown  not 
so  clearly  by  the  divine  aloofness — for  as  omni- 
potent  God  is  still  far  off — as  by  his  nearness,  by 
his  lovingly  submitting  to  human  conditions, 
for  in  this  region  man  may  meet  him.  Our 
power  is  borrowed,  and  may  shrink  into  non- 
entity,  but  our  love  is  immortal  and  may  be 
boundless,  when  called  forth  by  the  Divine 
Love.  Moreover,  love  in  its  perfection  is  creative. 
It  must  go  beyond  itself.  As  the  mutual  recog¬ 
nition  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  shows  love  for 
the  first,  in  thought,  existing,  it  is  at  once,  in 
thought,  active,  whereby  the  Holy  Spirit  eter¬ 
nally  proceeds,  and  a  universe  may  issue.  So 
when  love  in  its  purity  and  perfection  in  man, 
responsive  to  the  love  of  God,  comes  to  be,  it, 
too,  is  creative  ;  which  is  what  St.  Peter  meant 
when  he  said  that  we  should  share  the  divine 

$vmg. 

But  there  is  another  side  to  all  this  argu¬ 
ment  concerning  the  knowledge  of  Jesus.  While, 


MEXS  CHRISTI. 


11 


on  the  one  hand,  his  knowledge  was  human  and 
gained  through  the  same  media  as  ours  is,  it 
was  more  than  simply  human,  was  ideally  hu¬ 
man,  and  thus,  in  a  sense,  superhuman.  It  is 
not  to  be  denied  that  there  is  a  Charybdis  on 
the  other  side  of  this  Scylla,  and  that  we  may 
contemplate  in  thought  his  humanity  so  ab¬ 
stractly  as  not  to  see  that  it  was  modified  at  the 

fj 

start  by  the  entrance  of  diyinity  into  human 
development.  Here  now,  and  for  the  first, 
occur  any  real  difficulties  in  the  endeavor  to 

t 

reach  satisfying  conclusions. 

There  is  no  room  here  for  the  exhibition  of 
the  grounds  upon  which  it  must  be  held  as 
axiomatic  that  the  consciousness  of  the  Eternal 
Son,  as  such,  was  unbroken  ;  that  the  conscious¬ 
ness  of  his  relation  to  the  Eternal  Father,  and 
of  himself  as  undergoing  kenosis  by  the  limi¬ 
tation  of  the  transcendent  attributes  of  omni¬ 
science  and  omnipotence,  was  perennial,  was  a 
thread  of  unbroken  continuity.  Hence  that, 
as  such,  it  existed  ah  initio ,  and  at  the  lowest 
stage  of  human  development.  Nor  is  there 
room  for  the  elaboration  of  the  thesis  that  in 
the  rudimentary  consciousness  of  the  quickened 
human  germ— in  the  primal  sensations  felt  as 


12 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


internal  change,  yet  soon  discovered  to  be  im¬ 
parted  ab  extra — there  is  implicit  the  principle 
of  causality,  afterward  to  be  recognized  as  the 
governing  law  in  all  mental  activity  and  his¬ 
tory,  which  cannot  be  escaped  from,  and  which 
is  the  substratum  from  which  arises  the  knowl¬ 
edge  and  the  growing  idea  of  God. 

Postulating  these,  we  find  ourselves  obliged 
to  think,  or  assume,  the  coalescence,  in  the 
incarnation  of  the  Eternal  Son,  of  the  divine 
consciousness  with  the  rudimentary  human 
one,  thus  conserving  the  unipersonality, — the 
Divine  being  thus  limited  to  the  uttermost  of 
the  possibility  of  its  limitation.  But  from  this 
very  coalescence  the  pure  rudimentary  con¬ 
sciousness  of  the  infant  must  receive  modi¬ 
fication.  We  may  think,  then,  that  the  infantile 
recognition  of  a  power  ab  extra  (for  the  sim¬ 
plest  sensation  is  not  self-caused,  and  is  there¬ 
fore  still  ab  extra),  when  thus  affected  by  the 
coalescence  with  it  of  the  Divine,  assumes  the 
form  of  felt  and  responsive  love.  Thus  what  is 
most  divine  is  retained,  and  there  is  no  break 
in  its  continuity,  by  the  Eternal  Son  taking 
human  form.  We  may  think,  too,  that  even 
though  all  empirical  knowledge  be  wanting, 


MENS  CHKISTI. 


13 


the  impetus  and  the  ruling  idea,  and  the  final 
cause  of  all  creation,  by  means  of  which  alone 
all  empirical  knowledge  is  explained,  and 
has  any  permanent  significance,  is  felt  and  is 
an  element  in  such  consciousness.  Here,  in¬ 
deed,  understanding,  or  rather  imagination,  the 
reproductive  power,  using  the  material  of 
empirical  knowledge,  is  impotent,  since  we  can¬ 
not  transport  ourselves  into  the  infantile  con¬ 
sciousness.  But  thus  much  remains  for  pure 
thought,  and  of  the  consciousness  of  the  child 
Jesus  we  can  think  that  the  Eternal  Son  knows 
himself  as  loved  by  and  loving  the  Eternal 
Father  ;  and  since  having  from  love  undergone 
limitation,  and  the  obscuration  of  knowledge, 
or  rather  the  reduction  of  it  to  its  primal  form, 
still  knows  himself  as  loving  the  universe,  re¬ 
garded  in  its  fundamental  meaning ;  and  as 
love  was  the  impetus  of  its  creation,  and  real¬ 
ized  love  its  final  cause,  thus  knows  himself  as 
its  upholding  principle.  To  trace  the  illumi¬ 
nation  of  the  developing  infantile  conscious¬ 
ness  by  this  divine  modification,  in  the  preser¬ 
vation  of  the  unipersonality,  must,  as  I  have 
said,  elude  comprehension  or  trustworthy  imagi¬ 
native  reproduction,  but  it  can  be  thought — * 


14 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


yet  it  must  be  so  thought  as  to  involve  no  con¬ 
tradiction,  and  still  to  retain  what  is  essential 

to  the  idea .  of  the  human.  Here  we  have  the 

% 

ideally  human  as  well  as  the  actually  human, 
the  latter  coming  before  our  vision,  the  former 
held  in  pure  thought.  It  is  forbidden  to  think 
that  in  the  Incarnate  One  the  powers  of  the 
human  were  transcended.  That  is  concealed 
Monophytism,  again.  But  the  latent  and  possi¬ 
ble  powers  of  the  human  are  availed  of ;  and  it 
is  seen  in  Jesus  of  what  humanity  is  capable, 
and  we  have  a  unique  form  of  consciousness, 
which  we  call  divine-human.  The  moment 
one  endeavors  to  make  predications  concerning 
it  at  any  point  of  his  career,  the  temptation  is 
very  great  to  trust  to  one’s  understanding,  or 
to  follow  a  logical  process,  without  the  needful 
dialectic ;  and  hence  we  may  have  dogmatic 
assertions  concerning  our  Lord’s  consciousness 
which  are  entirely  unauthorized.  At  the  best, 
he  must  seem  to  us  something  of  an  enigma, 
but  one  finally  to  be  solved,  and  the  solution 
will  be  gained  step  hy  step. 

His  knowledge,  then,  before  his  death,  can¬ 
not  be  thought  as  perfect,  if  it  was  attained,  as 
all  human  knowledge  is,  in  the  course  of 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


15 


human  development.  Hence  his  confession 
that  there  is  not  present  in  his  mind  the  in¬ 
tended  career  through  which  his  Father  is 
leading  him,  and  he  can  pray  that  the  cup 
may  pass  from  him ;  and  he  cannot  put  in 
chronological  sequence  and  fill  up  the  details 
of  what  is  to  be  passed  through  before  the  final 
consummation.  Had  he  had  intuition  of  this, 
his  loving  sacrifice  and  spiritual  strength  would 
have  been  less,  and  we  could  not  love  him  as 
we  do.  Our  very  notion  of  his  divinity  would 
be  lower  than  it  is. 

But  while,  like  ours,  his  empirical  knowl¬ 
edge  was  a  growth,  and  therefore  deficient 
until  the  last,  there  must  also  have  been  in  him, 
perennially,  a  form  of  knowledge  deeper  and 
truer  than  our  actual  knowledge.  His  intui- 
tion  of  the  divine  idea,  the  one  purpose  which 
runs  through  and  unifies  all  history,  the  inner 

I 

meaning  of  all  change  or  development,  and  the 
key  to  read  it  aright,  was  true,  incessant  and 
infallible,  and  did  not  require  anything  to  be 
rethought.  This  would  seem  almost  a  corollary 
from  the  fact  of  the  sinless  on  took.  The  dis¬ 
torting  mists  which  arise  out  of  the  abyss  of 
unlovingness  are  not  present  here.  He  may 


16 


MENS  CHRIST I. 


not  have  known  every  event  of  the  world’s 
history,  but  when  it  was  understood,  he  knew 
infallibly  its  inner  meaning  ;  and  this  not  as 
the  absolute  divine  omniscience,  but  as  knowl¬ 
edge  possible  for  human  faculties  when  sancti¬ 
fied  and  purified.  In  this  wisdom,  which  is  more 
than  knowledge,  we  have  no  warrant  for  saying 
that  it  was  ever  deficient.  His  mind  may  have 
been  darkened  so  far  as  it  was  understanding, 

as  we  learn  by  his  utterances  in  Gethsemane 

* 

and  on  the  cross,  but  so  far  as  it  was  the  pure 
reason  clarified  by  love,  there  is  no  evidence 
that  there  was  ever  any  defect.  Hence  we 
refer  to  his  words  as  the  words  of  God  in  every¬ 
thing  pertaining  to  man’s  true  essential  life. 
They  are  for  us  a  refuge  from  all  human  obscu¬ 
rations,  and  deeper  than  our  excogitated  phi¬ 
losophies.  We  weary  of  what  these  say,  but 
never  of  what  he  said.  They  are  the  food 
and  the  fountain  of  our  spiritual  strength. 

This  intuition  of  the  idea  which  rules  the  de¬ 
velopment  of  the  universe,  and  which  need  not 
be,  in  human  progress,  necessarily  accompanied 
by  exhaustive  or  even  far-extended  empirical 
knowledge,  is  a  true  philosophic  attitude, 
which,  when  clothing  itself  in  language  to  satis- 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


17 


fy  one’s  own  understanding  or  that  of  others, 
and  to  gratify  the  imagination,  becomes  the  po¬ 
etic  attitude.  We  see  it  illustrated  in  the  mental 
procedure  of  the  world’s  great  poets,  and  nota¬ 
bly  in  the  instance  of  Dante.  Here  we  have  all 
the  empirical  knowledge  of  his  time,  ruled  by 
the  categories  of  time  and  space,  used  as  sym¬ 
bolic  of  the  abstract  moral  or  religious  con¬ 
dition  of  man.  It  is  the  thought  veiled  beneath 

events  expressed  in  symbol. 

Thus,  too,  Jesus’  descriptions  of  the  prospec¬ 
tive  ruin  of  Jerusalem,  and,  in  the  same  con¬ 
nection,  of  the  events  which  are  to  occur  at 
the  period  of  the  final  consummation,  are  used 
as  symbols  of  the  idea  or  process  of  judgment, 
or  discrimination  and  separation.  Ibis  is  the 
poetic  attitude,  which  is  so  far  identical  with 


the  prophetic  attitude,  in  whose  utterance,  gen¬ 
erally,  language  breaks  down  and  shows  its  in¬ 
adequacy.  Language  is  the  offspring  of  the 
material  universe,  so  far  as  it  has  come  within 
our  knowledge,  and  not  until  that  knowledge 
is  perfect  will  language  ever  be  an  infallible 
mode  of  expression,  and  enable  for  others  the 

full  intuition  ot  the  idea. 

When,  concerning  the  knowledge  or  the  in- 


18 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


tuitions  of  Jesus,  we  use  the  word  inspired ,  if 
Ave  mean  to  adhere  to  the  strict  meaning  of  the 
AAOid,  aa  e  do  not  mean  by  it  the  direct  divine 
omniscience,  mechanically  or  otherwise  im¬ 
parted,  but  knowledge  that  is  mediated  by  the 

fj 

Holy  Spirit  acting  upon  the  human  organs  of 

knowledge  ;  and  this  suggests  another  effort  of 

thought  to  discover,  if  possible,  the  mode  of 

the  Holy  Spirit  s  mediation,  and  how  human 

knowledge  is  or  may  he  affected  thereby.  If 

«/ 

aa  e  cannot  reach  full  satisfaction  here,  AATe  may, 
at  least,  find  Avhat  it  is  not,  and  therefore 
Avithin  Avhat  limits  AAre  must  think. 

It  Jesus  passed  through  human  development 
it  was  moral  and  religious  as  Avell  as  mental 
and  physical.  Postulating  his  innocence  or 
sinlessness,  his  moral  development  Avould  con¬ 
sist  in  the  acquisition  of  spiritual  strength,  and 
for  this  it  Avould  be  needful  that  he  should 
undergo  and  resist  temptation.  And  as  moral 
experience,  on  analysis,  proves  to  have  religious 
implications,  his  development  Avas  also  religious. 
The  motiATe  spring  of  his  moral  obedience  AAras  a 
religious  one.  It  Avas  love  responding  to  the 
love  of  the  Father  and  proving  that  it  was  this 
by  overfloAving  upon  the  human  race.  That  it 


INSPIRATION. 


19 


was  religions  is  proven  by  his  constant  prayer¬ 
ful  attitude  towards  the  Almighty  Father. 
What  was  in  his  mind  during  these  frequent 
communions  with  the  Father  we  are  not  told. 
His  uttered  prayers  were  such  as  his  disciples 
could  understand,  and  we  see  that  these,  and 
hence  we  may  infer  that  all  his  prayers  were 
related  both  to  the  providential  and  to  the  mys¬ 
tical  processes  of  the  divine  government.  He 
could  pray  for  relief  from  suffering,  and  he 
could  pray  for  the  grace  needful  to  sustain  him 
in  bearing  it.  The  gift  of  such  grace  is  the  ac¬ 


tivity  and  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  His 
disciples  pray  similarly  for  providential  change, 
and  for  mystical  influence,  for  the  light  and  aid 
and  comfort  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  If  this  influ¬ 
ence  is  mystical,  i.e.  beneath  understanding, 
through  what  media  does  it  reach  us,  and  what 
is  the  limit  possible  for  analysis  here  ? 

We  are  accustomed,  in  our  Christian  theology, 
to  refer  all  exercise  of  energy  in  the  movement 
of  the  physical  universe  to  the  Holy  Spirit.  Its 
mechanical,  chemical  and  vital  motions  and 
changes  are  all  referable  to  the  same  source.  In 
the  incoming  of  every  new  idea,  superinduced 
upon  the  antecedent  ones,  the  new  one  avails 


20 


MENS  CHRIST I. 


of  all  former  ones,  and  subdues  them,  and  the 
forces  they  display,  to  realize  its  own  end  or  final 
cause.  Thus  the  chemical  overrules  the  me- 
chanieal  movement,  and  the  vital  movement 
subdues  or  suspends  for  a  time  both  the  others. 
We  have  valid  ground  for  affirming  that  the 
moral  movement  dominates  all  three,  and  con¬ 
quers  all  the  system  of  lower  forces  to  its  own 
end.  But  I  will  not  enter  into  that  argument 
now  and  here.*  Slowly  all  these  movements 
and  their  correlations  come  before  our  appre¬ 
hension  and  become  knowledge.  But  the  pri¬ 
mal  energy  which  starts  and  sustains  them  all, 
dividing  itself  into  forces,  or  modes  of  motion, 
whose  contests  and  equilibria  make  all  con¬ 
crete  things  and  their  changes,  is  one  and 
the  same,  can  be  traced  back  to  nothing  else 
than  to  pure  will  and  idea,  and  therefore  can¬ 
not  come  within  the  categories  of  the  under¬ 
standing.  We  see  the  activity  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  by  its  result,  from  which  we  are  obliged  to 
infer  it  ;  but  we  can  only  imagine  it  by  think- 
ing  the  power  to  use  or  direct  the  forces,  of 
which  we  possess  a  little,  and  which  is  ruled  by 
our  will,  to  be  unlimited.  What  we  have  may 


*See  Chapter  xxiii,  Vol.  2,  in  my  work  ‘  Christian  Doctrine  Harmonized.” 


INSPIRATION. 


21 


be  lost,  but  the  abstract  power  cannot  be  lost, 
for  this  would  be  to  think  away  all  existence. 

If,  then,  the  energy  ruling  the  motions  of 
the  physical  universe  is  thus  mystical  and 
eludes  the  understanding,  any  exercise  of  it  for 
a  higher  end,  to  produce  moral  and  religious 
change,  must  be  also  mystical,  and  be  only  seen 
m  its  results.  Adi  Christians  declare  that  there 
are  such  results,  discoverable  in  their  charac¬ 
ters,  their  motives,  their  strength,  their 
emotions.  And  Christianity,  and  all  it  has 
wrought  in  the  world  and  for  the  indi\  idual 
man,  is  such  a  result.  The  Holy  Spirit,  then, 
must  work  upon  the  existing  ground,  the 
complex  of  forces,  which  in  a  degree  we  know, 
to  accomplish  the  higher  end.  The  intent  and 
purpose  is  to  strengthen  the  moral  and  leligious 
will,  and  carry  on  the  process  which  is  to  result 
in  moral  or  religious  perfection.  Through  what 
media  is  this  influence  wrought?  Through 
which  of  the  constituents  of  humanity  is  the 
end  reached, — through  the  abstract  physical, 
or  the  abstract  mental,  or  the  abstract  emo¬ 
tional,  or  if  through  all  three,  in  what  order  ? 
What  modification  of  the  consciousness  is  pos¬ 
sible  to  accomplish  this  required  strength  of 


22 


MENS  CHRISTL 


will,  and  by  what  processes  is  it  thus  modified  ? 
Is  it  (1)  something  utterly  apart  from  all  pre¬ 
vious  modes  of  energy,  superadded  to  them, 
and  hence  entirely  inexplicable ;  or  (2)  does 
it  operate  in  and  through  these,  and  is  so  far 
identified  with  them ;  or  (3)  are  the  two 
co-ordinated  and  together  constitute  the  activ¬ 
ity  ?  These  questions  may,  perhaps,  be  better 
understood  by  presenting  a  concrete  case,  which 
will  suggest  these  enquiries.  If  a  Christian  man 
prays  for  light  and  strength,  for  ability  to  see 
what  his  duty  is,  and  for  strength  to  adhere  to 
it,  how  is  such  a  prayer  answered  ?  We  may 
indeed  conceive  that  light  and  strength  may 
reach  him  through  providential  means,  by  some 
aid  supplied  ab  extra ,  by  which  the  mental 
vision  is  clarified.  But  if  this  does  not  come, 
and  if  any  mystical  influence  is  possible,  how 
does  it  reach  him  ?  Is  (1)  the  influence  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  will  direct,  imparting  strength, 
or  (2)  upon  some  feeling  or  emotion  imparting 
stimulus  and  intensity,  or  (3)  upon  the  think¬ 
ing  principle,  quickening  its  vivid  action, 
bringing  into  play  powers  ordinarily  dormant, 
and  through  this  process  giving  to  the  ideal 
end  such  attractiveness  that  it  becomes  a  moral 


INSPIRATION. 


23 


force  drawing  toward  itself,  and  thus  elicits  the 
human  response  and  activity  by  the  exhibition 
of  the  Divine  Love?  An  extended  critique 
might  be  made  of  the  two  former  hypotheses, 
the  result  of  which  would  show  that  we  know 
of  no  such  thing  as  will  abstracted  from 
thought  and  emotion,  and  which  can  be  acted 
upon  directly  ;  nor  do  we  know  of  any  emotion 
that  can  be  abstracted  from  the  thought  which 
has  supplied  its  object.  Dismissing  these,  then, 
as  untenable,  we  bring  up  for  examination  the 
third  hypothesis,  and  ask,  if  the  influence  is 
upon  and  through  the  thinking  principle,  how 
is  it  reached  ?  But  the  mind  itself  is  what  it  is 
by  virtue  of  its  relations  bodyward,  as  well  as 
spiritward,  and  cannot  be  rightly  thought  it 
neglecting  these  relations.  Is  the  mind  reached, 
then,  and  the  consciousness  affected  through 
the  medium  of  the  physical  relations  solely,  by 
influence  upon  the  body  or  the  brain,  by  which 
the  abnormal  physical  proclivities  are  reached 
and  weakened,  and  the  mental  vision  thus  freed 
from  perturbation  ;  or  is  the  mind  reached  from 
the  spirit  side,  by  spirit  communing  or  coales¬ 
cing  with  spirit  ?  Scrutinizing  carefully  human 
experience,  it  seems  that  all  moral  and  religious 


24 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


advance  comes  by  clarification  of  the  pure 
thought  movement  by  which  motives  are 
framed.  From  this  it  would  seem  to  follow 
that  the  mental  is  the  mediating  element  in 
human  action  connecting  the  physical  and  the 
spiritual  elements.  Take  a  concrete  case  again. 
It  is  no  conquest  over  a  perverted  physical 
appetite,  which  is  reached  through  the  weaken¬ 
ing  of  that  appetite  by  some  mystical  influence. 
The  moral  worth  is  lost ;  and  this  may  show 
that  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  not 
upon  our  physical  being  as  purely  physical,  but 
only  avails  of  this  so  far  as  is  needful  to 
produce  mental  change.  For  it  is  a  conquest 
of  a  perverted  physical  appetite  which  is 
reached  through  some  vivification  of  an  ideal 
presentation  having  higher  attractiveness, 
whereby  we  draw  away  from  and  resist  the  per¬ 
version  of  the  physical  appetite.  The  two 
present  moral  alternatives,  and  the  power  of 
good  has  overcome  the  power  of  evil.  We 
infer,  then,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  acts  upon  the 
human  will  through  an  illumination  made  in 
the  realm  of  ideas.  Moral  and  religious  ideas 
exist  in  all  human  souls,  as  such  ;  dim  and 
obscured  it  may  be,  but  still  there,  and  may,  in 


INSPIRATION. 


25 


every  degree,  be  clarified  and  made  influential. 
To  accomplish  this  is  not  to  add  new  powers  to 
the  human  being,  but  to  bring  out  his  latent 
powers  and  capacities,  to  show  of  what  he  is 
capable,  and  what  is  the  right  interpretation  of 
his  aspirations.  How,  then,  are  these  ideas  of 
God,  of  one’s  self  as  free  and  responsible,  of  the 
ideal  end,  or  one’s  normal  destiny ;  these, 
which  are  the  spring  of  all  moral  movement, 
how  are  they  to  be  illumined?  Is  (1)  the 
ener °'v  m  activity  through  physical  media, 

C-  c  ^  # 

freein°’  from  cloas  and  perturbations  the  biain- 

o  # 

movement,  quickening  its  activity,  intensifying 
its  penetrative  power,  and  enlarging  its  compre¬ 
hension  ;  or  (2)  is  it  by  direct  action  upon  the 
pure  psychical  consciousness  existing  beneath 
the  brain-movement,  and  which  an  enquiry 
into  the  facts  of  human  sleep  and  di  earning 
may  authorize  us  to  infer  is  a  continuous  and 
unbroken  thread,  which  constitutes  our  per¬ 
sonal  identity?  To  adopt  the  first  solution 
would  throw  upon  us  the  immense  task  of 
accounting  for  all  that  occurs  in  man  fiom 
physical  antecedents  only  ;  an  attempt  which 
has  never  been  successful,  and  against  which  all 
spiritual  philosophy  and  the  utterances  of  the 


26 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


Christian  Scriptures  are  a  protest ;  which  con¬ 
tend  or  imply  that  man  is  a  true  universal,  and 
that  existence  is  wider  than  our  knowledge, 
that  man  reflects  what  is  unknown  as  well  as 
what  is  known.  The  moral  idea  itself  disap¬ 
pears,  or  is  shown  to  be  baseless,  unless  the 
physical  changes  of  the  universe  are  for  a 
moral  end,  and  are  ruled  by  the  purpose  of  the 
latter.  This  is  the  contention  of  rival  philoso¬ 
phies,  the  one  holding  that  physical  changes 
alone  produce  the  (so  called)  moral  results,  the 
other  that  a  moral  aim  rules  all  physical 
changes.  Unless  this  latter  were  the  truth,  all 
prayer  would  be  illegitimate. 

It  may  indeed  be  questioned  whether  spirit 
ever  does  or  can  act  direct  upon  spirit,  and 
without  media ,  seeing  that  the  divine  glory  is 
God’s  own  medium  to  accomplish  all  creaturely 
existence  and  communication  with  the  same. 
But  it  cannot  be  thence  inferred  that  the  deter¬ 
minations  of  the  divine  glory,  which  constitute 
our  known  universe,  exhaust  its  possibilities  of 
determination  ;  otherwise  we  should  have  to 
think  all  angelic  life,  and  the  life  of  souls  after 
death,  as  under  human  physical  conditions 
still.  We  hold,  then,  that  we  may  rightly 


INSPIRATION. 


27 


think  determinations  of  the  divine  glory  below 
our  knowledge,  therefore  mystical,  and  that 
through  these  and  by  acting  upon  the  human 
sub-consciousness,  beneath  the  brain-move¬ 
ment,  the  Holy  Spirit  effects  whatever  change 
is  required  :  which  conclusion  is  strictly  scrip¬ 
tural. 

What  degree  of  such  influence,  then,  entitles 
it  to  be,  in  its  result,  called  Inspiration  f  In 
the  sense  above  given,  all  Christians  are  in¬ 
spired,  and  upon  this  must  be  built  whatever 
further  inspiration  is  possible.  That  the  dis¬ 
tinction  is  one  of  degree,  and  not  of  kind,  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  the  results  of  such  in¬ 
spiration,  as  discovered  in  the  utterances  of 
Jesus,  and  of  the  New  Testament  writers,  can  be 
measurably,  and  by  degrees  entirely,  followed, 
apprehended,  thought  and  made  practical  by 
the  Christian  mind.  If  they  could  not  be, 
they  would  be  inoperative,  would  be  as  words 
in  a  foreign  language,  and  could  not  be  called 
truths,  till  some  correspondent  thought  or 
meaning  came  to  pass.  But  it  does  not  follow 
that  the  comprehension  of  the  same  can  be  at 
once  complete  and  exhaustive  ;  rather,  that  the 
Christian  mind  must  be  stimulated,  and  beck- 


28 


MENS  CHRIST!. 


oned  on  step  by  step.  Truth  is  uttered  in  lan¬ 
guage  always  symbolic,  more  or  less  inadequate, 
and  is  bit  by  bit  appropriated.  Nor  does  any 
quickening  of  the  sub-consciousness,  whereby 
new  truth  is  seized  and  assimilated,  take  place 
in  man  as  purely  passive.  It  respects  and  is 
conditioned  by  his  moral  status  and  capacity, 
and  nowhere  overrules  his  mental  idiosyncrasy. 
Yet  moral  and  religious  growth,  developing  this 
idiosyncrasy,  must  enable  one  more  and  more 
readily  to  detect  the  truth  thus  expressed  by 
symbols,  whether  language  or  vision.  The 
domination  over  language  cannot  be  at  its 
uttermost  unless  the  empirical  knowledge,  from 
whose  material  language  is  constructed,  is  also 
exhaustive.  Any  imperfection  in  one  implies 
imperfection  in  the  other.  And  this  show  s  that 
language  is  never  an  absolutely  adequate 
vehicle  for  the  communication  of  truth.  Jesus 
language  is  accounted  for  by  his  historical  an¬ 
tecedents.  If  not  perfect,  it  implies  that  his 
empirical  knowledge  was  not  perfect,  but  both 
were  acquired  gradually  in  the  couise  of  human 
development.  But  of  the  absolute  truth,  vhich 
underlies  and  explains  all  facts,  we  may  hold, 
as  I  have  shown,  that  he  had  intuition.  By 


INSPIRATION. 


29 


IllOclllS  of  tlllS  ll6  COllld  S0G  IHOTG  and  11101 G 
clearly  the  meaning  of  all  human  history,  as 

tJ  ^ 

the  facts  of  this  history  passed  into  his  knowl¬ 
edge  though  still  enough  of  darkness  remained 
to  make  possible  his  trials,  his  confession  of 
imiorance,  his  exclamations  in  Gethsemane  and 


upon  the  cross. 

We  may  regard,  then,  the  inspiration  of  the 
Scripture-writers  as  similar  to  his.  It  was,  thus, 
an  outlook  from  the  same  centre,  but  less  ex- 
tensiye  than  his,  since  limited  and  determined 


by  the  immediate  providential  purpose.  The 
action  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  them  must  have 


respected  this  immediate  purpose,  and  thus  was 

guiding  and  overruling.  That  they  were  thus 

guided  is  shown  as  much  by  their  reticence  as 

by  their  affirmations.  That  the  authors  of  the 
€/ 

Synoptical  Gospels,  setting  themselves  to  the 
task  of  reminiscence,  or  of  compilation  from 
existing  memoranda,  should  have  contented 
themselves  with  these  simple  narratives,  should 
have  refrained  from  all  speculations,  should 
have  given  us  no  information  or  conjecture  as 
to  the  life  of  Jesus  before  he  began  to  exercise 


his  ministry,  except  of  the  occurrence  in  the 
Temple  during  his  childhood  (which  occurrence 


30 


MENS  CHRIST I. 


has  profound  theologic  significance),  and  that 
they  should  have  interspersed  no  comments 
of  their  own  upon  the  events  they  record,  is 
an  instance  of  restraint  that  confirms  our  belief 
of  a  providential  or  mystical  overruling,  and 
that  they  were  guided  what  not  to  say.  On 
this  account,  also,  we  may  have  confidence  in 
what  they  said ,  though  there  is  always  room 
for  the  critical  enquiry  whether  what  they 
wrote  has  been  correctly  transmitted. 

Nor  can  it  be  maintained  that  inspiration,  or 
inward  illumination  of  essential  truth,  is  neces¬ 
sarily  accompanied  by  such  domination  over 
language  as  infallibly  to  secure  its  correct  ap- 
preciation  by  others.  The  defect  may  be  in  the 
vehicle  as  well  as  in  the  recipient ;  for  the 
vehicle  is  not  the  author  as  a  passive  organ,  but 
one  having  his  own  history  and  his  own  idio- 

O  c 

svncrasv.  To  detect  a  unified  system  of  truth 

<  i  < 

in  the  utterances  of  such  men  is  the  after-work 
of  theology,  or  the  meditative  Christian  con¬ 
sciousness  ;  for  which,  too,  the  influence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  or  inspiration  in  a  lower  degree,  is 
still  required.  If  so,  and  the  difference  between 
these  writers  and  the  ordinary  illumined  Chris- 
tian  intelligence  is  one  of  degree  and  not  of 


INSPIRATION. 


31 


kind,  then  we  may  think  that  the  ultimate 
result  of  Christian  progress  and  mental  attain¬ 
ment  will  have  slowly  diminished  this  differ¬ 
ence  of  degree,  and  that  the  intelligence  of  the 
last  generation  will  have  appropriated  all  the 
thought  of  these  men,  and  be  identical  with 
theirs.  In  the  interval,  that  Christian  intelli¬ 
gence  should  sometimes  err  in  the  subjective 
holding,  follows  as  a  matter  of  course. 

T1  lese  inspired  men  were  divinely  enabled  to 
think  from  a  deeper  centre,  and  so  have  a 
wider  range,  though  the  clarity  and  extent  ol 
their  outlook  must  have  been  ruled  by  the  im¬ 
mediate  providential  purpose.  The  divine 
guidance  did  not  render  them  omniscient,  but 
respected  the  divine  purpose  only.  We  are  by 
no  means  authorized  to  think  that  the  authors 
of  the  Synoptical  Gospels  were  enabled  to  pene¬ 
trate  as  deeply  into  the  profound  and  far-reach¬ 
ing  words  of  Jesus  as  St.  John  was,  whose 
mind  the  Holy  Spirit  ruled  for  quite  another 
purpose.  Thus  the  difference  between  the  Sy¬ 
noptical  Gospels  and  that  of  St.  John  did  not 
depend  simply  and  only  upon  difference  of  ex¬ 
perience  and  culture,  but  as  well  upon  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  for  different  pur- 


QO 

6  L 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


poses.  In  the  case  of  the  three  evangelists,  the 
general  Chrstian  intelligence  had  not  been 
developed  far  enough  to  make  the  language 
possible  for  them  a  sufficient  organ  of  transmis¬ 
sion,  as  it  came  to  be  in  the  cases  of  St.  Paul, 
of  the  author  of  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
and  of  St.  John.  Thus  the  Holy  Spirit  follows 
and  adapts  his  activity  to  human  mental 
growth,  and  does  not  anticipate  and  lead  it 
along  passively.  Man  is  not  degraded  but 
elevated  in  our  regard  by  this  divine  procedure. 
Yet  the  fundamental  truth  which  underlies  the 
utterances  of  these  men  is  identical.  They  do 
not  contradict  one  another  in  their  intuitions, 

however  they  may  differ  in  their  mediated 

*  * 

knowledge,— which  is  another  proof  of  a  divine 
overruling.  This  absolute  internal  harmony  is 
the  most  convincing  proof  of  their  inspiration. 


LECTURE  II. 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ATONEMENT. 

Theology,  in  dealing  with  the  doctrine  of 
Atonement  (by  which  word  is  meant  the 
changed  relation  between  God  and  man,  accom¬ 
plished  as  result  by  the  sacrifice  of  Christ) ,  has 
made  but  slow  advance.  What  has  been  gained 
has  been  chiefly  negative  ;  that  is,  the  insuf¬ 
ficiency  of  the  many  tentatives  to  incorporate 
this  doctrine  into  a  self-coherent  theologic  sys¬ 
tem  has  been  made  manifest.  If  satisfaction  foi 
the  co-ordinating  mind  is  ever  reached,  no 
doubt  it  will  be  seen  that  the  true  regard  of  it 
has  been  unconsciously  held  and  taken  for 
granted,  or  instinctively  divined,  all  the  while ; 
and  the  evidence  of  this  may  be  looked  for  in 
Christian  literature,  and  will  be  found  quite  as 
much,  or  more,  in  the  naive  devotional  or  po¬ 
etic  utterances  as  in  the  more  deliberate  sys¬ 
tematic  effusions. 

But  something  positive,  also,  has  been  gained 
by  the  discovery,  or  the  suspicion,  that  the 
method  pursued  in  the  investigation  has  been  a 

33 


34 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


wrong  one,  or,  at  least,  an  incomplete  one.  The 
problem  has  been  taken  up  as  an  abstract  one, 
or  an  isolated  one,  disconnected  from  its  proper 
theologic  antecedents.  The  various  texts  of 
the  New  Testament  directly  referring  to  this 
doctrine  have  been  gathered  together  and  a 

CJ  o 

system  sought  to  be  elicited  from  them  ;  to 

*y  w  7 

make  which  sufficient,  certain  abstract  pre¬ 
suppositions  have  been  quietly  assumed  with¬ 
out  examining  or  proving  their  validity  ;  or, 
otherwise,  some  one  of  the  scriptural  expres¬ 
sions  denoting  the  result  of  the  atoning  sacrifice 
has  been  taken  and  made  the  key  by  which  to 
explain  all  the  others.  Thus,  redemption,  rec¬ 
onciliation,  satisfaction,  have  been  successively 
taken  as  thoughts  from  which  to  evolve  systems, 
with  results  plausible  and  accepted  for  a  time, 
but  whose  unsatisfactoriness  has  been  at  length 
made  manifest.  For  illustration  :  we  have 
the  old  Patristic  theory,  that  man  was  bought 
out  of  his  bondage  to  Satan  by  paying  to  the 
Prince  of  Evil  the  price  of  the  death  of  Christ, 
this  equivalent  being  given  to  make  the  scales 
of  justice  even.  This  is  the  theory  which,  car¬ 
ried  to  its  extreme  length,  gave  rise  to  utter¬ 
ances  that  seem  to  us,  now,  absurd  and  almost 


ATONEMENT. 


35 


ridiculous.  That  this  theory,  in  this  and  the 
milder  forms,  had  a  basis  of  truth  is  not  to  be 
denied  ;  but  that  as  a  form  of  the  doctrine  of 
atonement  it  should  have  had  vitality  for  so 
many  centuries,  and  at  length  be  abandoned, 
not  without  struggles,  as  untenable,  shows  that 
the  speed  of  human  speculative  thought  was 
very  slow  at  first,  and  has  since  undergone 
progressive  acceleration. 

Again  :  we  have  the  Anselmic  theory,  in 
which  the  death  of  Christ  is  supposed  to  have 
special  value  over  and  above  his  life  of  sacri¬ 
ficial  obedience,  and  is,  on  this  account,  re¬ 
garded  as  a  tribute  to  the  divine  Justice, 
needful  to  be  paid  that  the  divine  Mercy 
might  flow  forth.  The  offshoots  from  this 
theory,  in  the  earlier  and  later  Calvinistic 
schemes,  and  in  many  of  the  treatises  of  Roman 
and  Reformed  theology,  have  been  based  upon 
the  assumed  validity  of  this  same  abstract  prin¬ 
ciple  of  justice.  Thus,  the  old  Patristic  theory, 
on  the  one  side,  and  the  Anselmic  theorv  and  its 
offshoots  on  the  other,  which  at  first  regard  seem 
to  be  antagonistic,  are  found  to  be  fundament¬ 
ally  in  agreement,  since  based  upon  the  same 
notion  of  justice,  as  an  absolute  principle,  whose 


36 


MENS  CHRIST!. 

requirements  are  imperious.  The  language  of 
this  has  all  along  been  infecting,  and  is  still 
affecting,  the  utterances  of  Anglican  theology. 

There  is  another  class  of  theories,  which 
deny  the  need  of  maintaining  any  transcend¬ 
ent  efficacy  in  the  death  of  Christ  for  loosing 
man  from  his  bondage  to  sin  and  annulling  its 
penal  results,  and  make  its  virtue  consist  solely 
in  the  influence  wrought  thereby  upon  human 
consciousness,  either  to  terrify  or  to  attract  and 
win  him, — thus  that  it  has  simply  moral  fit¬ 
ness  and  no  ontological  necessity.  That  there 
is  an  element  of  truth  in  this  all  other  systems 
whatever  are  willing  to  admit ;  but  it  is  too 
easy  a  solution,  too  superficial  to  meet  the 
scrutiny  of  profound  thought.  It  has  failed 
to  satisfy,  chiefly  because  it  is  manifest  that 
the  Scripture-writers  had  in  their  minds  some¬ 
thing  other  and  deeper  than  all  this. 

Still  another  class  of  thinkers,  well  repre¬ 
sented  by  the  Roman  Catholic  theologian 
Pabst,  acknowledging  that  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ  must  be  thought  to  have  ontological 
virtue  and  results,  so  emphasize  the  sacrificial 
obedience  pervading  his  life,  tracing  it  back 
to  the  divine  self-limitation  involved  in  the 


ATONEMENT. 


37 


incipient  Incarnation  itself,  as  to  leave  for 
thought  no  special  significance  or  necessity  for 
his  death,  except  as  the  culmination  of  his 
moral  or  religious  obedience.  That  it  is,  in¬ 
deed,  such  a  culmination  is  obvious  ;  but  so 
far  as  this  theory  enlightens  ns,  the  mind  to 
die  would  appear  sufficient,  and  the  actual 
death  not  indispensably  necessary.  Its  pro¬ 
found  significance  as  part  of  the  human  career 
is  not  brought  out,  nor  sufficient  warrant  given 
for  the  scriptural  expressions.  We  need  still 
to  know  why  the  actual  death  must  ensue  in 
order  that  the  intended  result  may  be  brought 
about. 

Others,  again,  maintaining  the  necessity 
of  his  death,  explain  it  from  the  assumed 
validity  of  some  physical  principle,  which 
originated  these  ontological  results — a  scheme 
which  requires  an  inversion  of  every  spiritual 
philosophy,  subordinates  the  moral  to  the 
physical,  and  makes  the  relations  of  the  latter 

primal  and  paramount. 

Turning  away  from  all  these  theories,  other 

o  v 

theologians  pursue  their  enquiries  by  the  his¬ 
toric  method,  and  study  the  sacrifices  of  the 
older  dispensation,  to  discover  what  they  can 


38 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


from  the  same  of  the  divine  intent  and  mean¬ 
ing,  and  carry  this  light  with  them  to  illumine 
the  enquiry  into  the  meaning  of  the  sacrifice 
of  Christ.  These  sacrificial  rites  are  discovered 
or  assumed  to  have  an  educational  or  religious 
value,  intended  to  prepare  the  mind  of  the 
chosen  people  for  what  was  to  be  fully  recog¬ 
nized  when  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  should  be 
proclaimed  as  redemptive.  Thus,  these  sacri¬ 
fices  and  Christ’s  sacrifice  likewise,  are  part  of 
an  economic  system,  a  part  of  the  providential 
treatment.  Thus  this  view,  as  well  as  some  of 
the  former  ones,  inspires  a  mental  leaning 
towards,  and  allies  itself  very  readily  with, 
the  notion  so  long  and  persistently  held,  that 
there  was  no  absolute  necessity  for  the  incar¬ 
nation  and  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  but  only 
moral  fitness  ;  or  that  this  method  for  human 
recovery  could  be  traced  back  no  further  than 
to  an  arbitrary  decree  of  God.  Many  of  the 
most  eminent  Patristic  and  mediaeval  theo¬ 
logians  (Anselm  being  a  notable  exception)  con¬ 
tent  themselves  with  regarding  the  method  for 
human  recovery  as  only  one  of  many  possible 
methods  by  which  it  could  have  been  accom¬ 
plished.  Closely  scrutinized,  this  notion  either 


ATONEMENT. 


39 


refers  human  recovery  ultimately  rather  to  the 
power  than  to  the  love  of  God,  or  ignores  that 
love  is  a  moral  necessity,  and,  by  introducing 
an  element  of  arbitrariness  into  the  divine 
character,  lowers  instead  of  exalting  our  idea 
of  the  One  Supreme.  Thus,  in  speculating  upon 
the  divine  freedom,  as  in  similar  speculations 
upon  human  freedom,  the  will  is  thought  as 
separate  from  the  nature,  and  not  as  its  neces¬ 
sary  expression.  I  hope  that  it  will  appear,  in 
wliat  I  shall  say,  that,  given  certain  postulates, 
namely,  God  being  what  he  is,  and  man  being 
what  he  is,  and  their  actual  relations  what  they 
are,  no  other  mode  of  human  recovery  is  think¬ 
able,  or  was  possible,  than  that  by  which  it 
was  effected  ;  that  it  flows  in  due  course  from 
the  true  idea  of  God  and  from  the  immutable 
constitution  of  the  universe. 

This  whole  study  of  the  older  dispensation, 
and  of  its  sacrificial  rites  in  particular,  is  very 
well  in  its  place,  and  must  become  a  part  of  an 
exhaustive  treatment  of  the  entire  doctrine,  but 
I  regard  it,  as  availed  of  by  many,  as  a  reversal 
of  the  true  method.  It  is  required  to  supple¬ 
ment,  and  should  not  be  used  to  be  supple¬ 
mented  by,  an  enquiry  into  the  significance 


40 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


of  the  death  of  Christ  himself,  to  discover 
if  it  has  not  other  necessity  than  its  economical 
fitness.  The  antitype  can  never  be  fully 
understood  by  the  study  of  the  type.  History 
is  only  rightly  understood  when  studied  in 
the  light  of  its  final  cause.  The  immediate 
intent  of  these  prescribed  sacrificial  rites  was 
the  removal  of  temporal  disabilities  and  the 
restoration  of  religious  privileges,  and  they 
were  thus  made  indispensable  for  the  promised 
divine  favor  and  blessing.  The  entire  trans¬ 
actions  belong  to  the  temporal  sphere,  though 
they  have  the  further  and  less  immediate  result 
of  sustaining  and  advancing  the  religious 
education  of  the  chosen  people.  They  were 
mediately  and  not  immediately  moral  prescrip¬ 
tions.  But,  as  ritual,  they  prefigure,  on  a 
lower  plane,  what  was  to  take  place  on  a  higher 
plane,  with  far  other  results.  The  final  cause 
of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  was  an  ontological 
change.  It  was  to  reverse  the  movement  of  the 
universe,  so  far  as  it  can  come  within  human 
knowledge,  or  to  introduce  a  harmonizing  pro¬ 
cess.  It  was  to  start  the  return  current  of 
human  history  back  to  God.  To  study  it  one 
has  to  look  into  the  very  depths  of  the  divine 


ATONEMENT. 


41 


philosophy.  Then,  if  we  can  find  its  place  in 
the  whole  scheme  of  the  divine  dealings  with 
humanity,  we  may  look  backward  and  see  how 
it  was  reflected  by  anticipation  in  these  pre- 
figurative  rites.  Then,  too,  we  may  make  use 
of  the  analogies  suggested  by  these  to  throw 
back  the  reflected  light  and  increase  the  bright¬ 
ness  of  that  from  which  it  was  reflected. 

This  method,  while  a  true  and  valuable 
one,  should  occupy  the  second  place,  and  not 
the  first  place,  in  an  exhaustive  enquiry  or 
treatment.  What  should  be  done  first  is  to  see 
what  doctrine  of  sacrificial  atonement  must 
flow  out  of  its  theological  antecedents,  e.  <7.,  to 
study  the  incarnation  itself  in  the  form  which 
it  took  in  consequence  of  human  dereliction 
(whereby  it  had  to  be  redemptive  and  regen¬ 
erative  as  well  as  elevating  and  beatific),  so  as 
to  see  that  the  death  of  Christ  is  a  necessary 
moment  in  the  process.  This  may  be  called 
an  a  priori  method,  but  the  enquiry  proceeds 
from  antecedents  which  facts,  philosophy  and 
revelation  unite  in  confirming,  and  is  not  a 
process  of  deduction  from  any  assumed  and 
abstract  principle  or  proposition. 

Such  a  principle  is  assumed  in  all  those 


42 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


schemes  of  doctrine  which  make  the  death 
of  Christ  a  tribute  to  the  divine  justice. 
This  has  been  taken  as  an  absolute  principle, 
having  its  own  imperious  requirements,  with¬ 
out  establishing  the  validity  of  such  an  as¬ 
sumption,  without  looking  for  the  origin  of 
the  conception  in  human  thought. 

If  justice  were  an  absolute  principle,  we 
should  be  able  to  think  it  as  belonging  to 
the  Godhead  itself,  irrespective  of  any  created 
universe  (if  this  be  thought  as  a  free  creation, 
occurring  in  time)  ;  but  there  is  no  room 
for  such  a  conception  in  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity  in  Unity ;  nor  is  there  any 
room  for  it  when  creation  is  superadded. 
Not  until  intelligent  life,  human  freedom,  and 
the  possibility  of  moral  distinctions  appear  in 
the  universe  is  there  any  room  for  such  a  prin¬ 
ciple.  If  we  can  think  man  as  not  sinning, 
as  true  to  his  moral  allegiance,  and  as  nor¬ 
mally  developed  from  his  pristine  innocence 
till  he  should  reach  moral  indefectibility,  there 
is  still  no  room  for  it.  The  beneficence  of  God 
in  adapting  man’s  environment  to  his  pro¬ 
gressive  changes,  with  all  its  result  of  blessing, 
the  gift  of  a  larger  liberty,  and  the  opening 


ATONEMENT. 


43 


of  new  sluices  of  enjoyment,  is  only  Love. 

But  when  the  contradiction  of  sin  comes  to 

be.  then  love  itself  becomes  justice,  and  the 

divine  providential  treatment  divides  itself 

into  two  streams,  blessing  or  punishing  (but 

still  with  regard  to  the  ideal  and  organic 

unitv  of  the  race),  blessing  or  punishing  ac- 
« 

cording  as  the  human  response  is  loving  or 
unloving,  and  faint  or  strong  in  either  cate¬ 
gory.  Thus  is  revealed  the  immutable  eon- 

o 

stitution  of  t lit?  known  universe,  and  tliat  all 
physical  well-being  and  mental  expansion 
flow  sooner  or  later,  and  by  pathways  not 
entirely  untraceable,  in  the  train  of  moral 

t/ 

obedience,  or  responsive  love ;  and  all  ill- 
being,  suffering  and  impoverishment  of  re¬ 
sources  in  the  train  of  moral  transgression — 
this,  too,  partially  visible  as  well  as  neces¬ 
sarily  thinkable.  That  in  the  onward  flow 
the  innocent  suffer  for  the  sin  of  the  guilty,  is 
not  to  be  explained  by  any  doctrine  of  sub¬ 
stitution  (a  resort  of  the  logical  mind  to  rest 
in  a  premature  solution),  in  which  justice  is 
made  an  unmoral  attribute,  a  mathematical 
principle,  which  by  no  ingenuity  can  be  rec¬ 
onciled  with  the  divine  love.  If  one  ever 


44 


MENS  CHRISTL 


voluntarily  suffers  for  the  fault  of  another, 

ty 

in  ordinary  human  experience,  it  is  because 
of  the  effect  such  substitution  may  have  upon 
the  mind  of  that  other,  or  upon  the  mind 
of  someone  else  having  the  power  to  inflict 
suffering.  It  is  an  arbitrary  assent,  and  has 
no  moral  significance  or  fitness.  There  is  no 
possibility  of  making  them  equivalents,  espe¬ 
cially  as  the  suffering  cannot  be  judged  and 
graded  by  its  objective  form,  but  only  by  the 
capacity  of  the  sufferer.  What  would  be 
heavy  for  one  would  be  light  for  another,  and 
thus,  even  in  this  superficial  respect,  the  scale 
is  not  balanced.  We  all  know  of  the  absurd 
attempts  to  make  the  suffering  of  Christ  an 
equivalent  for  the  suffering  due  to  the  elect — 
a  solution  which  was  reached  by  the  tyranny 
of  logic,  or  else  was  a  confession  of  mental 
impotence,  and  declined  the  enquiry  into  what 
kind  of  suffering  was  not  possible  for  Jesus, 
and  what  was  possible,  and  which  thus  ob¬ 
scured  our  conception  of  his  love.  That  one 
does  and  should  suffer  on  account  of  the  sin 
of  another  is  a  corollary  from  the  doctrine 
of  the  organic  unity  of  the  human  race,  a 
scriptural  doctrine  to  which  science  is  yearly 


ATONEMENT, 


45 


addins:  new  confirmations,  and  which,  when 
scrutinized,  enlarges  onr  conception  of  the 
divine  idea  for  man,  and  brings  out  new 
richness  and  beauty.  Thus  justice,  in  the 
human  mind,  appears  as  an  a  posteriori  infer¬ 
ence,  and  may  be  seen  to  be  simply  the  form 
which  the  divine  love  takes  in  consequence 
of  the  dereliction.  Even  when  it  punishes 
it  is  seen  to  be  indirectly  recuperative 
in  its  intent,  and  when  it  chastises  it  is 
seen  to  be  directly  remedial.  No  inference 
drawn  from  God’s  treatment  of  his  creatures 
which  carries  us  around  to  a  contradiction  of 
his  love  is  valid,  any  more  than  is  any  infer¬ 
ence  which  contradicts  man’s  moral  inde¬ 
pendence. 

If  there  be  valid  speculative  ground  for 
holding  what  is  called  “  The  Scotist  Doc¬ 
trine  of  the  Incarnation  ”  (and  we  acknowl¬ 
edge  that  there  is  not  valid  scriptural  ground 
to  erect  it  into  a  dogma,  vet  that  the  New 
Testament  affords  no  contradiction),  and  that 
it  was  the  divine  intent  for  man  that  he 
should  reach  apotheosis,  for  which  a  new  act 
of  divine  creative  interference  was  needful, 


46 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


then  it  would  follow  that  death  was  no  part 
of  the  divine  intent  for  man — -did  not  enter 
into  the  essential  idea  of  man.  His  very 
spiritual  relation,  which  made  him  more 
than  animal,  implied  that  he  should  not  be 
bound  by  this  law  of  all  other  animal  life. 
(But  this  ultimate  elevation,  when  humanity 
should  have  reached  fitness  for  still  another 
step  upward,  could  not  be  called  a  regeneration, 
except  in  a  secondary  sense,  the  same  as  if  the 
irradiation  of  the  animal  soul  by  spirit  ele¬ 
ments  should  be  called  a  regeneration.)  The 
moral  and  religious  principle,  having  acquired 
sufficient  spiritual  strength,  having  proved 
itself  adequate  to  triumph  over  the  lower 
forces,  and  having  maintained  itself  in  the 
existing  relation  to  the  universe  would  at 
length  have  become  u  eternal  life.  Death  is 
an  abnormality,  and  the  result  of  the  moral 
defection.  Then ,  when  sin  entered  the  world, 
man  began  to  die.  The  spiritual  principle  was 
weakened,  and  human  vitality  must  ulti¬ 
mately  succumb.  The  human  career  now  be¬ 
comes  something  other.  A  changed  relation 
to  the  environment  becomes  necessary  and 
actual.  Thus  man  dies  and  assumes  another 


ATONEMENT. 


47 


set  of  relations  to  the  outlying  universe.  We 
might,  as  an  independent  enterprise,  show 
that  this  new  relation  to  the  environment  is 
now  a  necessary  moment  in  the  process  which 
is  carr vina  him  on  to  his  perfection,  but  there 

is  no  room  here  for  this/"' 

We  cannot  hold  that  the  divine  intent  for 
man  has  been  changed  by  the  incoming  of  the 
contradiction.  He  is  still  to  be  enabled  to 
fulfill  his  idea.  Hence,  as  needful  for 
this,  the  incarnation  still  occurs,  but  is 
now  changed  in  its  form.  It  is  still,  mediately 
and  remotel v,  elevating  and  beatific,  but  im- 
mediately  redemptive  and  regenerative.  It  has 
now  to  carry  the  weight  of  a  redemptive  pro- 
cess  to  annul  the  negation  ;  to  make,  on  the 
one  side,  sin  possible  to  be  forgiven,  i.  e .,  to 
ward  off,  attenuate  and  extinguish  its  conse¬ 
quences,  and,  on  the  other,  to  strengthen  the 
principle  of  moral  obedience  or  religious  love, 
and,  pari  passu  with  these,  to  work  changes 
in  the  other  constituents  of  the  complex 

*  In  some  form  or  other,  what  is  called  “  The  Fall  of  Man  cannot  possi¬ 
bly  be  declined  by  anyone  who  admits  the  absolute  character  of  moral  dis¬ 
tinctions.  An  animal  is  innocent.  Man  is  not  innocent.  Thatvherebj  he 
became  other  than  innocent  constitutes  his  fall.  If  this  was  necessary,  he 
cannot  be  blameworthy.  That  he  accuses  himself  shows  that  it  vas  not 
necessary.  Historical  enquiry  will  never  either  deny  or  confirm  this  a  priori 
conclusion. 


48 


mens  christi. 


human  nature,  to  make  it  physically  and 
mentally  correspondent  to  the  ultimate  moial 
perfection  ;  in  other  words,  to  be  regenerative. 

Thus,  to  be  the  seed,  or  the  progenitor  ot 
the  new  human  race,  the  Eternal  Son  must 
enter  human  lite  in  its  actual  conditions?,  in 
order  to  transmute  it.  Besides,  then,  what¬ 
ever  else  is  required  to  fulfill  the  lot  of  man, 
he  must  needs  pass  through  suffering  and 
death.  Now,  the  victory  over  the  lower 
forces  is  not  to  be  reached  spontaneously, 
but  through  effort  and  struggle.  In  other 
words,  the  divine  self-limitation  has  become 

sacrificial. 

We  adopt  here  the  Patristic  sense  of  the 
word  “satisfaction,”  and  use  it  to  denote  not 
a  tribute  to  any  abstract  principle  of  justice, 
but  the  complacency  ot  the  di\  ine  mind 
over  the  perfect  human  love  which  is  to 
bring  about  the  perfected  human  nature ; 
which  perfect  human  love  now  appears  for 
the  first  time  in  the  dying  Christ.  If  this  new 
germ  can  fructify,  and  show  itself  as  a  foim 
of  life  in  man,  it  is  thus  shown  to  be  regen¬ 
erative.  Ideally  man  is  redeemed,  and  eon- 

cretelv  in  the  progenitor  of  the  new  race, 
«. 


ATONEMENT. 


49 


from  whom  all  the  consequences  of  the  dere¬ 
liction  pass  away.  Thus  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus,  and  the  passing  away  of  all  clouds 
from  his  consciousness,  occur  not  as  the  super¬ 
induced  or  arbitrary  reward  for  his  moral 
obedience,  but  necessarily,  as  the  letuining 
flood  of  the  divine  creative  activity,  which 
now  can  move  through  unobstructed  channels. 
How  the  results  of  the  redemptive  act,  and 
of  the  completion  of  the  regenerative  process, 
are  to  reach  and  be  manifested  in  others,  in  a 
subjective  and  in  an  objective  process,  biinging 
before  us  the  doctrines  of  C  hnstian  faith,  on 
one  side,  and  on  the  other  of  the  Christian 


church  and  sacraments,  is  an  independent  and 
subsequent  enquiry.  What  remains  is  to  show 
that  in  order  to  be  redemptive  and  regenera¬ 
tive  the  career  of  Jesus  must  needs  carry  him 
through  the  article  of  death,-  to  exhibit  this 
as  indispensable,  so  as  to  warrant  the  emphasis 
laid  upon  it  by  the  authors  of  the  New  testa¬ 
ment  Scriptures,  whereby  will  be  seen  that  in 
the  true  sense  the  divine  justice  is  tlieieby 
manifested  rather  than  appeased. 

We  need,  then,  to  know,  first,  what  death 


is,  so  far  as 


possible  to  know,  i.e.  to  expr 


ess 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


it  in  such  terms  as  will  satisfy  philosophic 
thought. 

There  is  no  warrant  to  identify  it  (as  has 
been  done)  with  the  principle  of  moral  evil, 
as  though  it  were  brought  about  by  the  energy 
of  an  evil  spiritual  entity  ;  for  moral  evil  is  a 
contradiction  rather  than  a  negation,  and 
death,  abstractly  considered,  is  a  negation  and 
no  contradiction.  There  is  no  contradiction 
to  reason,  or  violation  of  the  aesthetic  sense, 
in  the  fact  that  death  occurs  in  vegetable  or 
in  animal  life  ;  rather,  in  the  evolution  of  the 
divine  ideas,  and  in  the  perpetual  changes 
which  have  occurred  in  the  plant  and  animal 
forms  of  existence,  there  is  food  and  high  grati¬ 
fication  for  the  aesthetic  requirements.  The 
contradiction  shows  itself,  first,  in  animal  pain 
(which  has  its  own  explanation,  though  but  a 
partially  satisfying  one,  since  it  carries  us  back 
to  the  prior  question  of  the  connection  of 
physical  with  moral  evil).  Whatever  machin¬ 
ery  be  needed  to  prolong  the  existence  of  a 
living  organism,  or  to  extinguish  it,  it  is 
simply  reducible  to  the  work  and  the  play 
of  the  known  forces,  vital,  chemical,  mechani¬ 
cal.  Disease,  which  combats  vitality,  or  the 


ATONEMENT. 


51 


too  weak  vitality  itself,  in  whatsoever  concrete 
wavs  this  abstract  contest  proceeds,  needs  no 

t j 

increment  beyond  these  rival  physical  forces 
to  explain  that  death  occurs.  If  it  be  true  that 
in  all  animal  blood  there  is  a  contest  between 
two  infinitesimal  forms  of  life,  we  see  that 
either  one  of  them  may  be  extinguished,  and 
that  in  every  case  the  chemical  force  resumes 
its  swav.  And  although  (as  is  affirmed  in  our 
latest  science)  the  primordial  cells  from  which 
ori°inates  animal  life  have  persistent  existence, 
and  do  not  perish  by  reproduction,  as  do  the 
differentiated  ones  when  the  sexual  distinction 
appears,  yet  they  are  not  immortal,  since  they 
may  suffer  violence  and  extinction  ;  and  thus 
persistent  existence  is  no  part  of  their  essential 
idea. 

Death  is  a  fact,  and  follows  all  known  forms 
of  life,  without  exception.  It  means  for  phi¬ 
losophy  that  the  idea  which  the  divine  energy 
in  actualizing  is  not  one  that  requires  immor¬ 
tality  as  its  essential  condition.  It  is  part  of 
«/ 

the  process  of  evolution,  of  the  universal  flow 
which  itself  exhibits  the  fertility  and  the 
inexhaustible  content  of  the  divine  thought. 
Not  vet  has  been  lodged  in  the  physical  uni- 


52 


MEXS  CHRISTI, 


verse  a  mode  of  force,  a  form  of  vitality,  which 
can  maintain  itself  persistently  against  the 
chemical  and  mechanical  modes  of  motion  ; 
but  that  such  a  form  of  vitality  should  be 
possible  is  the  persistent  craving  of  the  con¬ 
crete  human  being,  which  thinks  and  feels 
that  it,  as  an  organism  linked  to  the  beau¬ 
tiful  universe,  ought  not  to  perish,  that  it 
is  capable  of  higher  things  than  these.  It  has 
aspirations  which  the  fact  of  death  seems  to 
contradict,  to  crush  and  extinguish,  and  thus 
it  appears  to  human  consciousness  as  the 
intensest  of  contradictions.  It  is  for  human 
imagination  the  cutting  loose  the  bonds  which 
tie  the  universe,  with  all  its  beauty,  its  re¬ 
sources  for  knowledge,  its  gratifications  for  love, 
to  the  soul  of  man,  longing  to  retain  them  and 
make  more  of  them.  Though  the  human  soul 
cannot  imagine  nor  think  its  own  extinction, 
it  can  think  and  imagine  its  own  reduction  to 
poverty  by  the  withdrawal  of  these  resources, 
and  that  it  may  be  left  to  its  own  memories 
in  a  world  of  shadows,  and  be  able  to  look 
in  upon  itself,  and  understand  itself,  as  it  could 
not  before  amid  the  enticements,  the  hos¬ 
tilities  and  the  perturbations  of  the  existing 


ATONEMENT. 


53 


sphere  of  its  experience.  And  if  there  remains 
for  thought  still  the  abstract  possibility  or  need 
of  such  a  relation  to  an  unknown  environment 
as  furnishes  a  medium  for  spiritual  commu¬ 
nion,  this  is  still  something  unknown,  a  realm 
where  imagination  has  no  food,  and  can  only 
disport  itself  therein  by  bringing  back  the  very 
relations  which  have  ceased  to  be.  If  the 
human  soul  has  persistent  consciousness,  it 
must  either  undergo  this  impoverishment  of 
being  permanently,  or  it  must,  after  this 
stadium  has  fulfilled  its  purpose,  resume  its 
richer  and  progressive  life.  This  uncertainty 
ever  exists  for  the  thinking  soul  of  man,  and 
it  has  only  been  relieved  by  the  one  alleged 
fact  of  the  resurrection,  or  glorification,  of  Jesus 
Christ.  When  this  is  taken  as  a  fact,  and  all 
doubts  of  it  expire,  the  human  soul  starts 
forward  with  a  new  vigor,  and  shows  a  death¬ 
less  enthusiasm.  This  alone  is  sufficient  to 
remove  the  haunting  sense  of  contradiction 
which  has  weighted  the  spiritual  soul  all  along. 

Just  here  we  have  the  a  'priori  and  the  a 
posteriori  grounds  of  Christian  belief  meeting 
and  coalescing.  For  the  reason,  we  have  the 
conviction  that  a  form  of  existence  in  which 


54 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


there  is  no  contradiction,  and  in  which  the 
esthetic  sense  suffers  no  violence,  is  possible. 
All  instincts  have  objective  purposes,  and  the 
instinct  of  aspiration,  as  true  as  that  of  self- 
preservation,  has  here  its  objective  purpose. 
For  the  understanding  and  reproductive  imag¬ 
ination,  we  have  the  actual  thing  exhibited, 
that  one  has  triumphed  over  death,  and  the 
whole  of  human  aspiration  been  met.  In  this 
concrete  case,  the  supreme  condition  for  this 
lapsing,  or  upward  flow,  into  a  higher  form  of 
life,  is  the  attainment  of  moral  perfection,  the 
^growth  from  the  primal  innocence  into  inde¬ 
fectible  spiritual  strength,  the  coming  to  pass 
such  human  responsive  love  to  the  divine  love 
as  can  no  more  be  solicited  by  the  human  in¬ 
stincts  which  pertain  to  the  present  form  of 
life.  Now  domination  over  nature  may  ensue, 
and  does  ensue.  We  learn  the  same  lesson  that 
death  itself  teaches,  namely,  that  God  will  not 
allow  the  control  of  the  forces,  or  the  unlim¬ 
ited  use  of  the  resources,  of  his  created  uni¬ 
verse  to  any  creature  whose  will  is  not  identical 
with  his  own,  whose  love  is  not  strong  to  meet 
all  shocks,  and  is  not  beyond  the  possibility  of 
shock.  Thus  life,  as  a  permanent  relation, 


ATONEMENT. 


DO 


whose  name  is,  therefore,  “  eternal  life,’  can 
only  he  had  by  one  who  is  morally  perfect. 
This  shows,  then,  as  the  divine  idea  for  man, 
who  was  not  intended  to  die,  could  he  have 
retained  his  moral  innocence,  and  have  allowed 
the  spiritual  principle  to  reach  its  ideal  strength. 
But  since  this  idea  was  not  realized  in  the  first 
human  creation,  it  has  been  realized  in  the  new 
creation.  When  his  career  is  finished,  all  power 
in  heaven  and  in  earth  is  given  to  Jesus  Christ. 

Before  going  further,  it  may  he  well  here  to 
refer  to  certain  ambiguous  uses  of  the  word 
“  death,”  which  are  neither  scientific  nor  philo¬ 
sophical,  which  are  simply  poetical.  Theology 
may  avail  herself  of  these  only  in  the  latter 
sense.  Death  is  a  fact,  made  known  by  exper¬ 
ience,  which  may  be  used  as  a  figure  to  express 
or  illustrate  abstract  cessation  of  being,  or  the 
cessation  of  any  known  set  of  relations  what- 
ever.  For  instance,  the  phrase  “  spiritual 
death  ”  mav  be  used  to  mean  “  a  death  unto 
righteousness  ”  :  and  we  have  the  antithetical 
one,  “  a  death  unto  sin.”  These  expressions 
are  only  figurative,  in  either  case.  In  the  for¬ 
mer  is  denoted  the  possibility  that  the  unlov¬ 
ing  soul  may  carry  the  contradiction  so  far  as 


56 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


to  fix  itself  irrevocably  in  the  antagonistic 
attitude  :  in  the  latter  case  is  denoted  that  the 
sinning  propensity  may  have  undergone  extinc¬ 
tion,  or,  at  least,  that  the  principle  has  been 
lodged  in  the  soul  which  will  issue  in  this 
result. 

Or,  again,  the  expression  may  have  been 
used  as  a  synonym  for  annihilation,  the  pass- 

t  t 

ing  into  nonentity  of  a  spiritual  soul.  In  this 
case  it  is  a  mere  set  of  words  which  have  no 
meaning,  for  it  is  impossible  to  think  the  cessa¬ 
tion  of  being  of  a  spiritual  soul.  If  it  is  self- 
centred,  and  morally  its  own  creator,  its  moral 
characteristics  belong  to  eternal  relations,  in 
which  we  can  think  no  possibility  of  change. 
Even  though  it  has  come  to  be  this  by  a 
divine  creative  act,  it  is  on  this  account  an 
independent  entity,  however  its  environment 
may  be  narrowed.  It  determines  its  own  re¬ 
lation  to  whatever  is  beyond  itself,  so  far  as 
any  ideal  end  can  be  set  for  it,  or  manufac¬ 
tured  by  it,  out  of  existing  material.  Though 
created,  it  is  itself  a  creator.  God  has  limited 
himself  to  this  extent  that  it  has  passed  be¬ 
yond  his  control  as  to  the  determination  of 
its  moral  form.  In  this  is  its  dignity  as  the 


ATONEMENT. 


0  / 

highest  thinkable  result  of  the  divine  crea¬ 
tive  activity.  If  we  speak  of  death  in  connec¬ 
tion  with  it,  we  mean  the  cessation  of  the 
known  relations  to  the  physical  universe. 
Death,  strictly  speaking,  is  always,  and  only, 
physical ;  and  in  the  Scriptures,  when  not 
used  figuratively,  it  always  needs,  for  the  full 
meaning,  to  be  thought  in  such  connection. 
Good  and  evil  men  both  die,  but  the  former 
have  that  within  them  which  shall  blossom 
into  full  life  again,  and  renew  the  activity 
upon  the  physical  environment  which  has 
been  temporarily  withdrawn.  The  latter,  too, 
have  been  withdrawn  from  all  known  rela¬ 
tions  to  the*  outlying  universe.  What  un¬ 
known  relations  remain  or  are  still  possible  for 
them  is  a  question  closed  for  our  thought. 

And  now,  to  resume  our  main  topic,  the 
question  still  recurs,  why  was  the  death  of 
Christ  necessary?  If  we  abandon  the  thesis 
that  it  was  a  tribute  to  an  abstract  princi¬ 
ple  of  justice,  or  that  it  was  made  needful  by 
some  physical  law  profounder  than  all  known 
laws,  and  to  which  moral  changes  are  them¬ 
selves  subordinated,  such  as  the  misused  text 
“  Without  shedding  of  blood  is  no  remission,” 


58 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


or  that  it  was  simply  adding  a  climax  of 
meaning  to  the  educational  economy  w  hich 
had  prevailed  hitherto  in  the  divine  dealings 
with  the  selected  people, — on  what  other 
ground  can  it  be  held  to  have  been  a  neces¬ 
sary  condition  for  the  redemptive  work? 

If,  as  theologians  generally  have  admitted, 
the  virtue  of  Christ’s  death  did  not  arise  fiorn 
the  mere  physical  change,  as  such,  but  in  the 
spiritual  strength,  in  the  unswerving  will  and 
the  full  responsive  love,  all  these  constituting 
his  moral  triumph,  why  was  not  the  actual 
death  spared  him  when  this  condition  of  the 
soul-consciousness  was  reached  ?  Since  hu¬ 
man  perfection  was  attained,  arid  the  divine 
satisfaction  had  thereby,  why  did  he  not  blos¬ 
som  into  complete  being?  Why  did  he  not 
come  down  from  the  cross,  and  show  himself 
as  glorified  ?  The  imperfection  of  the  ty  pe  of 
Abraham  and  Isaac  is  here  manifest.  The 
resemblance  is  carried  to  a  certain  extent,  but 
then  it  ceases.  Abraham  was  spared  the  real 
sacrifice  to  which  he  had  consented,  even 
though  it  violated  his  moral  instincts,  and 
thus  became  a  trial  of  faith.  But  Jesus  is  not 
spared,  and  the  intent  of  Grod  the  Father, 


ATONEMENT, 


59 


which  he  had  made  his  own,  goes  on  to  its 
fulfillment.  No  occurrence  on  a  lower  plane 
could  fully  tvpifv  what  was  to  occur  on  this 
higher  one.  The  triumph  of  Jesus  had  no 
perfect  and  true  image  in  any  possible  physical 
act  of  man,  nor  could  any  human  moral  or 

fj 

religious  intent  fully  prefigure  what  was  pass¬ 
ing  in  his  consciousness.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
he  is  not  spared,  and  we  ask  why? 

First,  let  us  notice  that  the  persistent  purpose 
to  do  and  submit  to  the  will  of  the  Father 
could  not  haye  been  perfect  had  he  not  known 
his  death  to  be  inevitable.  In  his  sayings  he 
had  previously  alleged  it  to  be  so,  but  the 
tempting  understanding  and  the  physical  in¬ 
stincts  had  suggested  otherwise.  Hence  the 
prayer  “Father,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me.” 
But  this  temptation  is  overcome.  Death  is  not 
declined.  The  consciousness  of  the  seeming 
withdrawal  of  the  sustaining  influence  shows 
itself  in  the  utterance  “  My  God,  my  God,  why 
hast  thou  forsaken  me?  ”  This,  and  the  after 
one,  “  Father,  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my 
spirit,”  show  that  his  death  was  taken  for 
granted  and  submitted  to.  He  knows  now 
the  Father’s  will,  and  his  own  divine  will  in 


60 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


the  form  of  his  human  will ;  and  thus  God 
and  man  meet  in  the  profoundest  depths  of 
our  spiritual  being. 

Moreover,  we  may  allege  economical  reasons 
why  his  death  should  have  been  actual.  His 
intended  followers  would  have  missed  the  most 
powerful  motive-spring  had  they  not  seen  that 
his  spiritual  strength  was  sufficient  to  carry  him 
through  the  article  of  death.  Had  he  indeed 
come  down  from  the  cross  and  showed  himself 
then  and  there  as  glorified  and  omnipotent,  it 
would  have  been  a  display  of  divine  power 
rather  than  a  proof  of  his  love ;  and  the  task 
of  faith  would  have  been  less.  And  there  is 
the  further  reason  (which  I  will  not  stop  to 
explicate),  that  the  recognition  of  glorified 
humanity  may  be  possible  only  for  those  who 
themselves  have  been  the  subjects  of  incipient 
glorification.  Thus  to  the  other  bystanders 
this  would  have  been  a  disappearance,  and 
nothing  more. 

But  it  is  one  thing  to  hold  his  death  to  have 
been  required  for  these  economical  reasons, 
and  another  to  hold  it  to  have  been  absolutely 
necessary  for  his  own  spiritual  triumph,  and  to 
bring  about  the  new  relation  to  humankind. 


ATONEMENT. 


61 


Death  is  a  part  of  human  experience,  about 
which  we  know  something  when  we  look  at  it 
from  outside,  but  which  we  cannot  look  at  from 
within.  We  cannot  penetrate  the  conscious¬ 
ness  of  a  human  soul  when  the  bonds  which 
connect  it  with  our  known  world  undergo  at¬ 
tenuation  beyond  a  certain  length.  We  cannot 
follow  them  to  their  severance.  If  there  be  a 
sub-consciousness  in  the  human  being  all  the 
while,  and  the  brain-consciousness  is  made  up 
of  this  and  the  determinations  of  the  outer 
world,  we  cannot  trace  the  subsidence  of  the 
latter  into  the  former  and  describe  it  in  words. 
Reproductive  imagination  is  impotent  here,  but 
something  remains  for  pure  thought.  To  un¬ 
dergo  death  one  must  have  passed  through  this 
phase  ;  nor  would  Jesus  have  passed  through 
the  human  career,  and  known  our  lot  in  all 
points,  had  he  not  also  have  passed  through  it. 
If  the  soul-consciousness  remains  after  death, 
it  must  know  then  for  the  first  time  what  this 
mid-region  contains — what  death  really  is. 

Here  now,  for  still  further  explication,  we 
need  to  recall  the  doctrine,  manifestly  true,  of 
the  organic  unity  of  the  human  race.  From 
this  it  follows  that  the  intent  of  the  divine 


62 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


dispensation  in  Christ  is  not  to  perfect  and 
beatify  individual  human  souls  as  such,  but 
only  as  members  of  an  organism.  The  intent 
is,  either  to  regenerate  the  human  race  or  else 
to  create  from  it  a  new  organism,  which  shall 
have  ideal  perfection  and  completeness.  On 
grounds  needless,  perhaps,  to  adduce  heie,  we 
hold  God’s  intent  for  man  to  have  been  thus 
universal  5  that  Christ  died  for  all  men ,  that 
the  new  organism  will  consist  of  all  such  as 
do  not  willfully  withhold  themselves  from  it. 
Thus  it  follows  that  the  motive  power  of  God’s 
self-limitation,  taking  the  form  of  sacrificial 
love,  must  be  brought  to  bear  upon  all  men  ; 
and  that  otherwise  the  possibility  of  their  per¬ 
fection  is  not  supplied.  If  this  be  true,  then  the 
knowledge  of  God’s  love  in  Christ  must  leach 
those  who  have  passed  through  death  into 
whatever  possible  environment.  This  is  not 
holding  to  any  such  notion  as  u  probation  after 
death,”  as  might  easily  be  shown.  As  Jesus’ 
knowledge  was  human,  and  attained  through 
human  media ,  his  knowledge,  before  his  own 
death,  of  the  state  of  existence  of  human  souls 
after  death  must  have  been  such  as  was  gained 
through  human  media.  However  modified  by 


ATONEMENT. 


63 


the  divine  element  in  the  hypostatic  union, 
and  whatever  prophetic  vision  may  have  been 
possible  and  actual  for  him,  it  was  human 
knowledge  still.  He  must  know  thus,  yet 
otherwise  than  thus,  and  in  the  lull  sense  ot 
knowledge,  human  existence  in  this  form. 

o 

Hence  the  significance,  and  the  need  for  a  soul 
under  time-conditions,  of  the  interval  between 
his  death  and  his  resurrection.  He  does  not 
know  death,  we  may  say,  in  the  fullness  of  its 
definition  until  the  present  mode  ot  being  and 
that  other  mode  of  being  stand  in  mental  con¬ 
trast.  Thus  his  own  physical  glorification,  or 
instatement  in  the  ideal  and  permanent  rela¬ 
tion  to  his  own  glory,  is  postponed  until  he  is 
brought  into  conscious  connection  with  the 
departed  ones,  whom,  too,  he  came  to  save. 
Thus,  his  death,  and  the  subsequent  conscious¬ 
ness  and  activity,  do  not  appear  as  part  ol  an 
arbitrary  economy,  but  as  necessary,  as  part  of 
the  process  required  for  the  ontological  change 
which  his  redemptive  work  is  to  bring  about.' * 
Certainly,  in  the  Christian  Scriptures,  the 
response  of  faith,  in  which  human  recovery 

*  As  something  more  than  the  meagre  treatment  of  this  interesting  topic, 
alone  possible  in  the  dimensions  of  this  lecture,  I  must  be  permitted  to  refer 
to  its  ampler  treatment  in  the  concluding  chapters  of  the  first  volume  of  my 
work  “Christian  Doctrine  Harmonized.” 


64 


MENS  CHRIST!. 


is  begun,  is  alleged  to  be  elicited  by  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  Christ  crucified,  of  the  divine  conde¬ 
scending  love  transmuting  itself  into  the  human 
responsive  love.  And  this  is,  too,  the  descrip¬ 
tion  of  Christian  experience.  One  would  think, 
then,  that  the  appreciation  of  this  ought  to  be 
of  something  simple,  and  easy  to  be  brought 
home  to  the  simplest  human  capacity.  And 
further  meditation  upon  this  ought  to  intensify 
one’s  conviction  of  this  love,  and  not  neces¬ 
sarily  carry  one  into  doubts  and  questionings, 
which  are  sure  to  arise  if  human  ingenuity 
here  insists  upon  a  residuum ,  and  obtrudes 
theories  which  sorely  trouble  the  intellect.  If 
abstract  questions  are  here  raised  and  solutions 
given  which  become  weights  to  withhold  the 
soul  from  yielding  to  this,  God  s  revelation 
of  himself,  their  untruth  or  insufficiency  may 
be  suspected.  Such  seems  to  have  been  the 
result  of  many  theories  of  atonement  which 
have  made  it  to  conceal  some  new  and  unique 
mystery.  The  attractiveness  of  Christianity 
has  been  diminished,  and  many  have  been 
repelled  thereby.  If  the  alleged  mystery 
weakens  the  attractive  power  of  Christ  s  atone¬ 
ment,  it  may  be  thought  on  that  account  to 
be  spurious.  "Whatever  mystery  there  be  must 


ATONEMENT. 


65 


be  such  as  will  enhance,  and  not  impair,  our 
conception  of  the  divine  love.  The  real 
mystery  is  for  theologic  reflection  and  not  for 
popular  instruction  to  deal  with.  It  lies  in 
the  inability  of  the  human  mind  to  bring 
within  the  sphere  of  understanding  and  imagi¬ 
nation  the  divine  self- limitation  required  tor 
the  incarnation  itself.  This  appears  when  we 
endeavor  to  state  it  in  terms,  and  it  appears 
again,  in  the  seeming  oblivion  of  the  divine 
consciousness  indicated  by  Jesus’  lament  upon 
the  cross.  These  two  are  the  magnet  opera 
indeed,  and  different  aspects  of  the  one 
mystery,  but  beyond  this  there  need  be 
none.  And  when  brought  up  for  reflection 
this  mystery  does  not  weaken  but  enhances 
our  conception  of  the  divine  love,  since  it 
appears  as  lowering  itself  for  our  sakes  to  the 

greatest  possible  depth. 

That  in  the  history  of  theologies  new 
mysteries  should  have  been  superadded  to  this, 
which  have  no  moral  nor  religious  power, 
but  suggest  doubts,  or  keep  the  Christian 
mind  in  perpetual  agitation,  we  are  only  recon¬ 
ciled  to  by  regarding  it  as  part  of  the  dia¬ 
lectic  process  through  which  theology  has 
made  its  advance. 


LECTURE  III. 


THE  POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE,  AS  DETERMIN¬ 
ING  THE  MODE  OF  HUMAN  MORAL  ACTIVITY. 

What  is  in  the  future  ?  What  is  the  pos¬ 
sible  and  probable  condition  or  set  of  relations 
before  us,  immediate  or  remote  ? 

This  is  a  question  of  surpassing  interest  for 
the  human  soul.  What  will  be  the  existing 
state  of  things,  according  to  our  power  of 
prevision,  on  this  our  planet,  as  well  as  what 
will  be  the  issue  in  the  realm  of  departed 
souls,  is  a  question  whose  answer  determines 
the  aim  and  the  mode  of  all  moral  activity. 
We  plan  our  life  and  direct  our  energies  ac¬ 
cordingly.  Moral  systems  differ  chiefly  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  extent  of  this  prevision,  and  are 
either  egoistic,  and  make  the  welfare'  and 
amount  of  happiness  for  the  individual  the 
guiding  indication  of  present  conduct ;  or  they 
are  altruistic,  i,  e.  some  aim  is  set  regarding  the 
welfare  and  happiness  of  the  human  race,— -an 
aim  which  may  be  comparatively  clear  in  its 
outlook  upon  the  immediate  future,  but  which 

G6 


G7 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 

is  obscured  in  its  imagination  of  that  which 
is  remote  ;  or  they  are  religious,  both  when 
obedience  to  prescriptions  is  the  rule,  and  the 
effort  to  penetrate  the  result  is  abandoned,  and 
also  when  it  is  taken  into  the  thought  that 
conscious  existence  after  death  is  possible,  or 
probable,  or  certain,  and  when  thus  the  fore¬ 
casted  condition  of  the  human  race  under 
another  environment  must  have  its  influence 
in  determining  the  plan  of  life  and  the  mode 
of  moral  activity. 

If  the  thread  of  human  history,  as  it  is 
continued  on  this  planet,  and  the  thread  of 
human  history  as  it  is  continued  in  the 
conscious  existence  of  human  souls  after  death, 
be  not  utterly  distinct if  they  have  connec¬ 
tion,  and  are  part  of  a  unified  system,— if 
there  are  not  two  streams  of  divine  govern¬ 
ment,  entirely  separate, — then  these,  which 
seem  apparently  two,  but  which  are  ideally 
and  in  the  divine  mind  one,  must  be  interre¬ 
lated  ;  and  if  any  knowledge  of  this  interre¬ 
lation  can  be  had,  it  must  affect  accordingly 
human  moral  activity.  And  thus  it  becomes 
manifest  that  a  faulty  abstraction  may  be  made 
on  either  side,  and  that  life  may  be  planned 


68 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


with  sole  regard  to  the  probability  of  the  hap¬ 
penings  in  this  visible  sphere,  disregarding 
the  parallel  and  possibly  converging  current 
of  history  for  the  departed  and  departing  gen¬ 
erations  :  or  else  the  latter  only  may  he  held 
in  view,  and  one  become  comparatively  care¬ 
less  and  indifferent  to  any  result  of  the  actual 
human  history,  and  the  welfare  of  the  genera¬ 
tions  that  are  to  succeed  the  existing  one  ;  the 
importance  of  this,  in  the  subjective  regard, 
being  swallowed  up  in  the  apparently  superior 
importance  of  the  ultimate  and  permanent  con¬ 
dition  of  mankind.  That  these  two  are  severed 
in  thought,  and  thus  that  the  guide  to  moral 
activity  is  partial  or  vacillating,  can  only  come 
from  a  superficial  regard,  from  a  lack  of  ability 
or  inclination  to  unify  these  two,  or  from  the 
failure  of  any  attempt  so  to  do.  Hence,  we 
have  accusations  from  either  side.  Christians 
have  been  faulted  for  too  exclusive  attention 
to  the  probable  existence  after  death,  and  for 
disregarding  the  present  needs  and  claims  of 
the  human  race,  and  thus  their  morality  has 
become  the  subject  of  criticism.  And  the  other 
side  has  been  faulted  for  blinding  itself  to  the 
claims  upon  thought  of  the  future  state  of 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


69 


existence,  for  planning  the  human  career, 
and  directing  its  energies  as  if  this  earthly 
experience  were  the  only  one. 

There  is  historic  explanation  of  the  fact  that 
in  the  beginning  of  Christianity,  when  new 
hopes  were  started  for  mankind,  when  an  un¬ 
wonted  enthusiasm  was  aroused,  when  the 
knowledge  or  belief  of  the  resurrection  of  its 
founder  had  entered  the 'mind,  when,  too,  it 
was  the  prevailing  impression  that  the  final 
consummation  was  nigh  at  hand,  its  adherents 
should  have  become  indifferent  to  this  present 
human  existence.  In  their  astonishment  that 
any  should  withhold  themselves  from  these 
comforting  and  inspiring  thoughts  and  expec¬ 
tations,  they  were  inclined  to  withdraw  them¬ 
selves  apart  from  the  world  and  to  deepen  the 
chasm  of  separation.  Yet  the  history  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  shows  that  its  adherents  were  constantly 
struggling  against  this,  and  gradually  recog¬ 
nized,  more  or  less  extensively,  that  this 
present  world  had  its  claims  upon  them,  that 
the  intended  reformation  was  larger  than  they 
had  imagined,  and  wTas  a  more  difficult  task. 
The  cardinal  principle  of  Christian  conduct, 
love,  was  too  living  to  be  long  fettered  by  this 


70 


MENS  CHRIST!. 


blinding  tendency,  and  it  was  forever  breaking 
through  these  superimposed  bounds,  and  busy¬ 
ing  itself  with  the  relief  of  human  suffering, 
and  with  tentative  efforts  (as  yet  with  unde¬ 
veloped  intelligence  as  to  methods),  to  improve 
man’s  physical  and  social  condition.  Its  mis¬ 
sionary  enterprises,  alas !  too  often  disregarded 
the  immediate  human  welfare,  but  this  was 
when  a  superstitious  element  had  infected  their 
activity,  and  outward  and  mechanical  conform¬ 
ity  was  accepted  instead  of  a  spiritual  allegiance. 
But,  while  never,  perhaps,  entirely  free  from 
this  misapprehension  of  the  intent  of  their 
Master,  these  enterprises  were  gradually  puri¬ 
fying  themselves,  and  haA7e  always  been  a  kind 
of  index  of  the  strength  and  purity  of  the  gov¬ 
erning  Christian  motives.  And  in  proportion 
to  their  purity  were  the  claims  of  humankind, 
that  its  temporal  welfare  should  not  be  dis¬ 
regarded,  met  and  gratified  with  such  intelli¬ 
gence  as  was  had. 

A  careful  study  of  the  New  Testament 
shows  that  in  the  mind  of  Jesus  Christ  these 
two  aims  were  equally  set  forth,  and  illustrated 
in  his  own  conduct.  Thus  their  unity  was 
implied,  if  not  stated  in  terms.  And  hence 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


71 


ideal  Christianity  is  not  chargeable  with  fault 
from  either  side ;  and  actual  Christianity 
sooner  or  later  endeavors  to  recover  itself,  if  it 
discover  in  itself  a  disproportionate  leaning 
either  way.  It  is  ever  busy  in  attempts  to 

t/  %j  x 

unify  both. 

But  to  return  to  our  argument.  It  is 

evident  that  the  rule  of  conduct  to  determine 

present  activity,  will  undergo  modification 

according  to  the  clearness  and  truth  of  our 

prevision,  and  according  as  it  extends  but 

little  way  or  far  into  the  remote.  The  whole 
* 

problem  then,  divides  itself  into  two  questions, 
or  rather  into  three.  First :  what  state  of 
things,  more  or  less  satisfying  the  moral  ideal, 
can  be  or  may  be  reached  on  this  planet, 
towards  which  it  is  our  duty  to  urge  our 
way  ?  Second  :  what  is  the  meaning,  in  our 
thought-system,  of  the  state  of  being  after 
death  ?  And,  third  :  how  are  these  interre¬ 
lated,  and  can  they  in  combination  furnish 
the  true  aim  of  our  conduct  and  guide  for 
our  activity  ? 

First,  as  to  the  earthly  probabilities.  It 
is  certain  that  the  mass  of  men,  and  ordinary 
minds  must  be  content  with,  and  are  only 


72 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


adequate  now,  for  a  very  unextended  outlook. 
We  may  think,  indeed,  that  in  the  days  to 
come  a  vision  of  the  farther  remote  may  be¬ 
come  more  general,  but  just  now  they  linger 
still  in  the  mists.  They  must  be  content 
with  such  rules  for  moral  conduct  as  present 
themselves  as  the  crystallized  results  of  human 
inquiry  and  experience.  Unless  they  willfully 
disregard  all  moral  distinctions  whatever, 
they  must  still  be  truthful  and  benevolent. 
They  must  be  honest  according  to  present 
prescriptions  until  some  other  rule  of  justice 
shall  have  legitimately  replaced  the  present 
ones.  And  if  they  are  more  than  animals 
they  must  be  God-fearing  and  devout.  They 
still  need  to  have  the  obligation  to  all  this 
brought  home  to  them  ;  for  even  in  this 
stratum  of  humanity  we  witness  constant 
outbreaks  of  the  selfish  principle,  though,  it 
may  be,  with  more  excuse  than  have  the 
inroads  of  the  selfish  principle  in  the  strata 
above  them.  For,  for  them  it  may  be  that 
the  intelligence  and  the  motives  have  not  yet 
been  supplied  to  keep  them  true  to  their  own 
subjective  or  objectified  ideals  of  conduct. 

But  the  more  cultured  and  thoughtful 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


stratum  of  humanity,  which  always,  either 
directly  or  indirectly,  leads  the  others,  needs 
and  inclines  to  look  deeper  than  all  this, 
and  to  ask  what  is  the  ideal  state  of  humanity 
on  our  planet,  and  how  far  can  it  be  made 
real.  Not  until  all  belonging  to  this  grade 
reach  the  same  reply  to  these  questions  can 
they  be  at  one  in  their  advice  to  those  below 
them,  and  agreed  as  to  the  mode  of  their 
own  activity. 

This  is  a  most  profound  problem,  and 
tasks  the  human  mind  to  the  uttermost.  It 
is  the  one  which  is  now  agitating  the  thought¬ 
ful  world,  and  which  has  roused  it  from  its 
mental  repose  to  ask  what  remedy  is  possible 
for  the  wrongs  and  imperfections  in  the  social 
state,  and  in  human  conditions  in  general.  It 
is  certainly  a  great  gain  that  the  wrong  is 
seen  and  acknowledged.  This  is  the  first  step 
towards  its  repair.  And  that  some  who  see 
or  feel  this  wrong  are  disposed  to  rush  rashly, 
and  others  to  tread  cautiously,  are  the  two 
forms  now,  of  the  progressive  and  conservative 
tendencies.  Some  are  so  captivated  by  the 
contemplation  of  a  state  of  things  which  they 
can  imagine,  that  they  leap  forward  and 


74  MENS  CHKISTI. 

contend  for  its  realization  without  seeing  the 
impediments  in  the  way.  And  others,  again, 
seeing  that  human  selfishness  perennially 
exists,  and  that  to  it  can  be  traced  all  the 
wrongs  of  the  past,  foresee,  or  think  they  do, 
that  it  will  continue  to  produce  new  wrongs, 
or  the  same  wrongs  in  new  form,  and  so 
they  become  despairing  and  inert. 

But  this  latter,  the  resort  of  the  extreme 
conservative  attitude  or  disposition,  shows 
but  a  superficial  regard.  It  ignores  the 
fact  that  the  condition  of  mankind  has  not 
been  stationary;  that  it  has  a  history ;  that 
while  the  human  motive-springs  still  remain 
the  same,  they  actualize  themselves  in  dif- 
ferent  forms  ;  that  there  has  been  a  growth 
in  moral  knowledge;  and  that  knowledge 
itself,  by  making  the  true  ideal  more  evident 
and  attractive  to  what  is  deepest  in  the 
human  soul,  reacts  upon  the  motive-springs, 
and  either  intensifies  the  motive  force  of  the 
good  principle,  or  makes  more  diametrically 
contrary,  willful  and  spiritual  any  opposition 
to  it.  The  positive  worth  is  in  the  progressive 
spirit.  The  worth  of  the  conser\  ative  attitude 
is  negative,  and  consists  in  weighting  and 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


(O 


holding  back  the  confused  or  thoughtless 
zeal  of  the  former. 

Christian  people,  in  endeavoring  to  settle 
these  questions  for  themselves,  have  been  ac¬ 
customed  to  consult  their  sacred  writings, 
and  some  have  professed  to  find  in  them 
doctrinal  vindication  for  the  endeavor  to 
segregate  the  Christian  community  from  the 
world,  and  hence  draw  the  line  of  clemark- 
ation  as  sharply  as  possible.  They  have  found 
indeed,  that  the  immediate  aim  and  effort 
of  the  divine  interference,  and  the  consequent 
human  activitv,  has  been  to  make  an  election 
from  the  mass  of  mankind  who  should  be 
the  bearers  and  propagators  of  the  new  re¬ 
generating  principle,  and  constitute,  thus,  a 
“  peculiar  people.”  These  were  the  “  leaven  ” 
of  the  world  which  was  to  assimilate  to  itself 
whatever  did  not  refuse  to  be  assimilated.  If 
any  did  refuse  to  be  thus  assimilated,  they, 
the  leavened  portion,  must  still  remain  a 
“  peculiar  people.”  Hopeful  and  sanguine 
as  St.  Paul  was  of  the  results  of  the  Christian 
principle,  this  distinction  still  remained  in 
his  mind,  and  to  him  the  antagonism  seemed 
likely  to  endure  till  the  end  of  the  dispensation. 


76 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


This  conclusion  had  its  germ  and  stimulus 
in  the  words  of  Jesus  Christ  himself.  He 
prayed,  indeed,  for  his  disciples,  and  for  all 
who  should  believe  in  him  through  their 
word.  But  he  by  no  means  declared  that 
the  distinction  was  to  be  effaced.  “  They  are 
not  of  the  world,”  said  he,  “  even  as  I  am 
not  of  the  world.”  The  “  world  ”  was  still 
implied  in  his  thought.  He  prayed  that  all 
these,  thus  separate,  might  be  one,  as  he  and 
the  Father  were  one  ;  thus  recognizing  organic 
completeness  in  the  new  human  race;  and  left 
untouched  the  question  whether  the  completed 
organism,  covering  or  including  the  two  states 
of  human  existence,  would  be  co-extensive 
with  the  human  race,  and  be  the  old  organism 
regenerated  and  reconstructed  ;  or,  whether 
the  antagonism  would  permanently  continue. 
It  cannot  be  argued,  from  a  consensus  of  his 
entire  words,  that  he  committed  himself  to 
either  alternative.  And  hence  dogmatism  is 
out  of  place  here,  and  we  are  thrown  upon 
our  speculative  ability. 

There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  to  an 
ordinary  inspection  the  New  Testament  favors 
this  latter  view,  especially  as  St.  Paul,  with 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


I  i 

inspired  intuition,  or  prophetic  insight,  seems 
to  see  the  evolution  passing  beneath  the  shows 
of  phenomena,  and  that  the  evil  principle  is 
spiritualizing  itself  as  well  as  the  good  prin¬ 
ciple,  assuming  forms  less  gross  and  carnal, 
and  becoming  more  purely  willful  and  de¬ 
liberately  antagonistic,  till  it  should  culmi- 
nate  and  manifest  itself  in  some  visible  anti- 
christ. 

It  is  on  this  account  that  Christianity  has 
been  charged  with  admitting  into  its  thought 
a  persistent  dualism,  with  regarding  the  irra¬ 
tional  as  unsolvable  and  unremovable,  thus 
also  with  a  violation  of  the  aesthetic  sense, 
which  requires  a  removal  of  all  contradiction. 
The  question  is  whether,  for  human  thought, 
there  is  any  way  of  escaping  this  dualism. 

To  avoid  this,  human  ingenuity  has  been 
tasked  to  the  uttermost,  and  various  methods 
have  been  resorted  to.  The  New  Testament 
Scriptures  have  been  studied,  and  isolated 
texts  discovered  which  seemed  to  promise  a 
universal  restoration,  or  some  earthly  mil- 
leniurn.  But  they  do  not  seem  to  the  un¬ 
prejudiced  mind  sufficient  to  bear  the  burden, 
and  were  manifestly  foreign  to  the  habitual 


78 


MENS  CHRIST I. 


mode  of  thinking  of  the  authors  of  these 
Scriptures.  Besides,  the  speculative  validity 
of  this  solution  depends  upon  the  validity  of 
a  prior  solution.  For  it  is  no  more  irrational 
that  the  irrational  should  permanently  endure 
than  that  it  should  ever  have  existed.  Hence 
such  as  these  need  to  show  that  the  dualism 
is  but  seeming,  and  that  evil  is  not  irrational, 
(of  which  presently). 

Again  we  have  the  notion,  not  Scriptural 
but  speculative,  of  conditional  immortality, 
about  which  we  need  only  say  that  it  assaults 
the  absolute  character  of  moral  distinctions, 
and  requires  an  ethic  of  expediency  only, 
hence  that  it  affords  a  spurious  sense  of 
obligation,  and  substitutes  a  selfish  for  a 
loving  motive-spring. 

Again,  there  are  the  various  philosophic 
schemes  which  virtually  deny  the  moral  dis- 
tinction  altogether,  by  making  man  and  his 
determinations  a  moment  or  link  in  the  inex¬ 
orable  physical  nexus. 

And  for  some,  who  have  not  been  satisfied 
with  these  superficial  resorts,  there  has  been 
required  an  endeavor  speculatively  to  discover 
a  possible  mode  of  human  universal  recovery, 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


79 


and  thus  to  vindicate  their  emphasis  upon  the 
above-mentioned  isolated  texts  of  Scripture  ; — 
an  onerous  task  indeed,  admitting  the  abso¬ 
lute  character  of  moral  distinctions,  and  one 
doomed  to  failure,  and  found  at  length  to  sub¬ 
side  upon  the  unintelligent  feeling  or  emotion 
of  hope  that  God  will  in  some  way,  undiscov- 
erable,  annul  the  contradiction,  and  restore  the 
human  heart  to  its  complacency. 

It  would  require  too  long  a  critique  here,  to 
deal  with  certain  philosophic  modes  of  treat¬ 
ing  this  question.  We  may  say,  however,  that 
to  make  moral  evil  a  necessary  moment  of  the 
process,  and  a  needful  dialectic  in  the  evolu¬ 
tion  of  the  idea,  again  assaults  the  absolute 
character  of  moral  distinctions,  and  cannot 
explain  the  form  they  take  in  human  con¬ 
sciousness. 

None  of  these  endeavors  carry  us  out  of  the 
mists  created  by  this  apparent  dualism,  into 
the  clear  light  beyond,  of  mental  satisfaction. 
The  conclusion  may  be  that  the  solution  of 
this  problem  eludes  our  mental  insight,  and  by 
creating  the  alternatives  for  faith,  thus  elicits 
our  moral  strength,  which  is  certainly  needful 
for  permanent  human  recovery. 


80 


MENS  CHRIST I. 


A  solution  of  the  inquiry  into  the  possible 
and  probable  condition  ot  the  human  race  has 
been  sought  after  in  another  way.  Recogni¬ 
tion  is  made  of  the  fact  that  human  knowledge 
is  progressive,  and  that  consequently  the  im¬ 
provement  and  harmonization  of  its  instincts, 
or  crystallized  prudential  habits,  must  be 
also  progressive.  The  principle  of  heredity  is 
availed  of  and  followed  out  to  the  utmost  of 
conjectured  results.*  And  this  is  an  imagina¬ 
tion  of  a  generation  in  the  far  future,  with 
rectified  instincts,  in  which  the  altruistic  and 
egoistic  tendencies  shall  have  coalesced ; — a 
fascinating  ideal,  indeed,  which  has  an  imper¬ 
ishable  element  of  truth,  with  which  the  Chris¬ 
tian  ideal  has  points  of  agreement ;  but  which, 
in  mv  regard,  is  not  philosophically  1101  e\  en 

scientifically  profound. 

For,  it  is  acknowledged  that  the  egoistic 

*We  may  note  in  this  connection  the  effect  upon  this  theory  of  Mr.  Her¬ 
bert  Spencer  of  the  alleged  discovery  of  Weisman,  in  his  work  on  Heredity, 
that  acquired  habits  are  not  inherited,  that  the  modifications  of  human  pro¬ 
clivity  thus  reached  are  only  transitory,  and  are  not  included  in  the  physical 
nexus.  I  have  my  doubts  whether  this  is  not  a  hasty  conclusion,  and  av  ait 
scientific  testimony  from  a  larger  induction.  A  simple  divergence  fiom  the 
customary  mode  of  action,  may  indeed,  in  the  next  generation,  be  weakened 
and  effaced  Bat  if  repeated  in  the  generations  which  immediately  follow, 
may  modify  the  involuntary  proclivity.  This  whole  allegation  separates 
into  two  streams  the  voluntary  and  involuntary  modes  of  human  activity 
and  tendency,  and  does  not  fully  admit  their  interaction,  and  their  modifi¬ 
cation  of  each  other. 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


81 


proclivities  have  had  their  origin  in  the  needs 
derived  from  the  environment,  and  been  modi¬ 
fied  by  the  requirements  made  by  the  sur¬ 
rounding  nature,  and,  unless  tins  too  changes, 
these  also  must  continue,  and  will  perpetually 
bring  assault  upon  the  altruistic  tendency .  It 
is  required,  to  justify  the  imaginati\e  pictuie 
which  this  theory  presents,  that  the  obligation 
of  sacrifice,  or,  (more  cbrrectly  according  to 
the  requirements  of  the  theory),  the  expedi¬ 
ency  of  sacrifice,  shall  become  so  paramount 
and  universal  a  conviction  as  to  annul,  at  the 
birth,  any  egoistic  proclivity  asserting  itself. 
If  such  sacrifice  shall  continue  to  be  difficult 


and  painful,  it  will  still  remain  as  a  contradic¬ 
tion  nurturing  again  the  egoistic  proclivities. 
If  it  can  be  transmuted  into  pleasure,  and  thus 


be  extinguished  as  sacrifice,  this  too  must  be 
transitory,  since  it  will  be  assaulted  by  the 

t 


despairing  admission  of  its  own  transitoriness, 
since  it  gives  a  picture  having  no  absolute 
worth,  gratifying  only  momentarily  the  imag¬ 


ination,  and  above  all  haunted  by  the  knowl¬ 
edge  that  it  has  been  purchased  at  the  fearful 
expense  of  the  failures  and  the  agonies  of  the 
past  generations,  of  this  holocaust  of  human 


82 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


victims ;  a  feeling  sharp  enough  to  wound  its 

complacency,  to  start  a  pessimistic  fear  that 

the  cycle  may  again  revolve ;  and  vivid  enough 

to  generate  a  new  set  of  instincts  more  subtly 

contradictory. 

* 

The  only  relief  that  can  come  to  human 
thought,  when  it  occupies  itself  with  these  im¬ 
aginative  pictures  of  a  possible  state  of  things 
here  on  earth,  is  derived  from  the  admission 
that  the  generations  departed  have,  too,  a  his¬ 
tory,  and  that  carried  on  in  a  more  than  paral¬ 
lel,  in  a  converging  current,  which  will  at 
length  unite  with  the  actual  and  visible  hu¬ 
man  history,  and  thus  display  the  unity  and 
the  meaning  of  the  whole, — to  which  conclu¬ 
sion  the  Christian  Scriptures  supply  their 
Imprimatur.  If  there  be  grounds,  metaphysi¬ 
cal,  moral,  as  well  as  revealed,  for  holding  hu¬ 
man  immortality  and  responsibility,  then  these 
two  questions  cannot  be  separated ;  or  if  stud¬ 
ied  apart,  it  must  be  to  see  how  they  converge 
into  one. 

Evidently  humankind  must  go  forward, 
and  plan  for  itself,  and  devise  measures  for  its 
own  improvement,  immediately  or  remotely, 
amid  this  darkness  and  uncertainty  as  to  the 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


83 


ultimate  results.  No  clear  pathway  for  human 
thought  is  discernible  by  which  it  can  prove 
for  itself  the  removal  of  the  contradiction  of 
moral  evil.  But  its  refusal  to  abide  content 
with  the  permanency  of  the  irrational  is  per¬ 
ennial.  And  thus  it  vibrates.  This  is  the 
intensest  trial  of  its  faith, — seduced,  on  the  one 
hand  to  rest  in  premature  solutions,  and  drawn 
by  a  profound  mental  requirement,  on  the 
other,  to  rest  in  its  idea  of  God  as  still  su¬ 
premely  loving.  Therefore  perfect  mental  sat¬ 
isfaction  cannot  be  had  here.  At  any  former 
period  of  the  human  story,  at  this  period,  at 
any  conjectured  future  period,  we  do  not  see 
that  this  insight  would  have  been  or  would  be 
a  boon  ;  for  if  it  were  granted,  this  trial  of  our 
spiritual  fibre, — this  despairing  and  hoping, 
this  believing  and  doubting  experience,  would 
hardly  have  sufficient  burden  cast  upon  it  to 
call  out  the  utmost  human  moral  strength,  and 
thus  elevate  man  to  his  true  dignity.  On  the 
one  hand  we  refuse  to  think  the  dualism  to  be 
necessary.  On  the  other,  we  cannot  deny  that 
it  exists  and  is  more  than  schein.  In  this  per¬ 
plexity  and  uncertainty  mankind  must  go  on, 
and  prepare  itself  for  its  coming  experience  on 


84 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


this  planet,  and  for  its  future  existence  under 
another  set  of  relations. 

These  two  currents  of  human  progress  do 
not  seem  now  to  intermingle.  On  the  one  side 
we  have  Christian  prayers  for  the  departed  as  in 
organic  unity  with  ourselves.  As  to  the  other, 
we  have  only  conjecture,  but  we  cannot  think 
away  sympathy  and  love,  and  that  longing 
which  is  prayer.  There  appears  no  bridge 
upon  which  we  can  travel  across  from  our  side, 
and  return  to  report ;  or  if  any  have  gone  over 
and  returned,  they  have  not  been  allowed  to 
report,  or  have  been  unable  to  report  from  the 
inadequacy  of  language,  or  have  refrained  from 
reporting  from  the  conviction  that  it  would  be 
no  boon  to  those  still  surviving.  That  there  is 
any  frequent  passage  from  the  other  side  to 
ours,  is  a  conclusion  without  evidence  worthy 
of  respect.  Each  portion  of  the  human  race 
moves  on  in  its  own  light,  and  the  ultimate 
coalescence  of  these  two  streams  of  human 
history  must  be  as  much  a  craving  for  one  as 
for  the  other.  They,  the  departed  ones,  as  well 
as  we,  must  still  mentally  cry,  “  How  long, 
how  long  ?  ”  and  show  thus  that  they  are  our 
brethren  still. 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


85 


In  our  day  the  conviction  is  becoming 
more  and  more  strong  and  steady  that  we 
must  make  more  of  this  present  world  ;  that 
it  is  full  of  wrongs  that  may  be  righted  ;  that 
it  is  possible  so  to  modify  or  reconstruct  the 
social  state  as  that  comfort  shall  be  more  gen¬ 
erally  diffused,  human  intelligence  be  clari- 
fled  and  enriched,  the  conditions  and  oppor¬ 
tunities  for  development  and  elevation  be 
made  more  universal ;  and,  as  a  consequence, 
that  the  loving  spirit  which  ties  together  this 
human  brotherhood  may  revive  or  strengthen, 
assert  its  ideal  vigor,  without  artificial  impedi¬ 
ments  and  superinduced  restraints. 

Many  are  trying  to  devise  means  by  which 
all  this  can  be  measurably  accomplished. 
The  difficulty,  confusion  and  uncertainty  arise 
from  our  inability  to  gather  all  the  facts 
required  for  a  trustworthy  induction,  and  to 
penetrate  very  far  into  the  future.  The 
threads  which  make  the  web  ot  human 
history  are  too  numerous,  for  any  one  to 
weave  this  changing  web  into  the  unchanging 
warp.  Any  anticipation  must  be  scrutin¬ 
ized  carefully.  Hence  the  lesson  to  move 
cautiously,— not  to  uproot  but  to  replace  by 


80 


MENS  CHIiLSTI. 


development, — not  to  make  efforts  too  abstract, 
and  regarding  only  the  immediate  in  space 
and  time.  The  result  that  should  never  be 
lost  sight  of  in  all  such  efforts  must  be  uni¬ 
versal  and  inclusive,  and  respect  the  entire 
human  race.  The  immediate  result  must, 
indeed,  be  partial,  and  at  first  exclusive,  and 
respect  the  more  advanced  peoples  ;  but  this 
still  with  the  view  of  the  after  result  upon 
the  outlying  sections  of  the  human  brother¬ 
hood.  Meanwhile,  the  two  efforts  may  go 
on,  in  some  way,  pari  passu  ;  the  one  so  to 
improve  the  uncultured  races  on  the  earth 
as  to  prepare  them  for  their  after  elevation  ; 
the  other  to  rectify,  as  we  can,  the  social 
state  of  the  more  intelligent  peoples. 

And  along  with  all  these  efforts,  let  men 
not  forget  that,  beneath  all  this,  the  divine 
energy  is  at  work,  and  will  surely  accomplish 
its  purpose.  That  while  it  will  not  crush 
human  freedom,  but  will  forever  leave  to  man 
to  determine  the  moral  form  of  his  activity, 
it  still  holds  absolute  control  of  the  material 
content  of  human  action,  that  this  is  caught 
up  into  the  current  of  an  irresistible  wave  that 
sweeps  securely  to  its  shore.  This  may  be 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


man  s  consolation  for  liis  own  possiblo  mis¬ 
takes,  and  keep  alive  his  faith  and  cheerful¬ 
ness  amid  his  own  failures.  That  we  are  on 


the  threshold  of  a  revolution,  either  to  be 
quiet  or  violent,  that  we  are  on  the  eve  of 
meat  social  changes,  becomes  yearly  more 
and  more  probable.  Insensibly  almost,  for 
the  general  knowledge,  we  have  been  led  to 
it  ;  and  thus  we  recognize  the  divine  mind,  in 
human  history,  as  well  as  in  the  physical 
evolution. 

A  millennium  is  not  to  be  hoped  for.  Suf¬ 


ficient  Scriptural  warrant  for  it  is  wanting,  and 
there  is  no  speculative  warrant.  The  true 
interpretation  of  our  mundane  story,  so  far 


as  we  can  comprehend  it,  is,  that  in  it  and  by 
it  moral  good  and  evil  are  Doth  being  spirit¬ 
ualized.  It  is  all  important  to  see  that  this 
is  true  of  the  latter  as  well  as  the  former. 
When  moral  evil  shall  have  become  pure — it 
we  can  think  it,  at  length,  to  have  become 
willful,  and  be  known  as  a  conscious  and 
deliberate  antagonism,— in  the  possibility 
that  when  on  the  eve  of  this  last  result  for 
human  thought,  man  may  hesitate,  and 
decline  it  in  this  pure  form,  as  a  possible 


88 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


mode  of  being, — in  this  alone  is  any  specula¬ 
tive  ground  for  the  removal  in  thought  of  the 
contradiction.  But  this  ground  is  still  not 
secure,  since  we  fail  to  see  how  pure  evil  has 
any  power  to  make  itself  other  than  it  is ;  and 
since  we  see  that,  even  in  the  immediate  ante¬ 
cedent  stage,  the  motive  power  of  good,  hav¬ 
ing:  undergone  constant  abatement,  seems  on  the 
verge  of  extinguishment.  External  violence 
is  either  annihilation,  or  the  annulment  of 
human  moral  freedom;  and  means  the  re¬ 
calling  by  God  of  his  own  creative  acts. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  that  moral  good 
is  spiritualizing  itself  is  more  and  more  mani¬ 
fest.  We  are  learning  yearly,  and  with  in¬ 
creasing  rapidity,  by  what  kind  of  activity 
human  love,  responding  to  the  divine  love 
should  manifest  itself.  The  spirit  of  evil  has 
been  found  to  be  lurking  in  many  an  insti¬ 
tution,  or  part  of  the  social  fabric,  long  estab¬ 
lished,  and  primarily  sprung  from  human 
selfishness.  The  sympathy  of  the  morally 
good  becomes,  all  the  while,  finer  and  more 
exquisite,  and  respects  not  only  the  physical 
needs  of  men  and  their  requirements  for 
enjoyment,  but  the  subtler  psychic  disorders 


POSSIBILITIES  OP  THE  FUTURE. 


89 


and  diseased  imaginations,- — these  needless 
tortures  which  the  human  soul  has  been 
inflicting  upon  itself  and  upon  others.  It 
strives  to  reach  and  remedy  even  these  and 
is  discovering  methods  by  which  to  do  it. 
To  diffuse  this  disposition  and  ability  to 
minister  to  the  more  recondite  wants  of  man 
is  part  of  the  duty  of  those  who  already,  in 
degree,  possess  it.  Mankind  will  never  be¬ 
come  a  true  brotherhood  until  it  reaches  the 
ability  as  well  as  the  disposition  so  to  minister. 
Thus  men  may  be  united  by  subtler  and 
stronger  threads. 

The  great  fault  of  our  existing  social  state  . 
is  that  it  allows  or  furnishes  too  many  fetters 
and  restrictions  upon  moral  freedom— by 
which  term,  here,  we  mean  the  ability  to 
choose  for  its  own  sake,  and  from  its  own 
pure  attractiveness  moral  good  or  evil.  This 
restriction  exists  even  in  the  simplest  social 
conditions,  where  the  external  fetters  seem 
to  have  been  reduced  to  a  minimum.  It 
has  been  apparent  in  all  actual  attempts  to 
realize  an  Utopia.  In  all  such  the  self- 
seeking  principle  has  sooner  or  later  dis¬ 
played  itself,  and  for  its  own  ends  forged 


90 


MENS  CHKISTI. 


restrictions  for  others.  Nay,  it  exists  even 
in  the  family  itself.  The  parent  has  been 
tempted  to  carry  his  control  of  his  child  too 
far  ;  to  seek  to  carry  him  his  own  way,  as 
though  his  subjective  view  were  the  absolute 
truth  ;  to  prolong  authority  beyond  the  period 
when  human  manhood  should  be  respected 
and,  allowed  free  self-assertion,  be  allowed  to 
act  according  to  its  own  convictions.  Sow 
parental  control,  absolutely  needful  at  first, 
should  be  allowed  to  lapse  by  degrees  into 
parental  unrestraint  is  a  most  difficult  concrete 
moral  problem.  But  the  former  was  carried 
by  its  own  impetus  too  far  in  the  primal 
human  efforts  for  social  organization,  and  we 
have  had  primogeniture,  and  the  patriarchal 
and  tribal  systems,  upon  which  were  built 
national  systems,  which  have  only  very  slowly 
been  emancipating  themselves  from  the  re¬ 
strictions  laid  upon  them  by  the  former  ones ; 
and  we  see  this  process  of  emancipation  going 

on  in  our  own  day. 

Thus  the  progress,  through  which  man 
has  reached  a  larger  personality,  and  succes¬ 
sively  come  to  regard  himself  as  member  of  a 
larger  and  still  larger  organism,  first  as  mem- 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


91 


berof  a  family,  next  as  citizen  of  a  state,  and 
finally  as  member  of  a  human  brotherhood  or 
a  church,  has  had  its  own  dialectic  ;  and  as 
human  society  has  improved  itself  these  re¬ 
strictions  have  become  more  numerous,  com¬ 
plicated  and  subtle.  Possibly,  too,  they  have 
become  by  this  very  separation  and  diffusion, 
attenuated,  weaker,  and  more  removable.  These 
restrictions  are  both  natural  and  artificial,  or 
conventional.  The  natural  ones  are  founded 
in  the  essential  human  nature  itself.  The 
artificial  ones  grow  out  of  the  complications 
of  the  social  state.  Since  artificial,  they  are 
removable  by  the  same  voluntary  ability  which 
imposed  them,  and  the  remedy  can  be  sought 
and  found.  The  former  ones  are  profounder 
and  need  a  more  radical  remedy.  Political, 
social,  moral  wisdom  are  needed  for  the  first 
task,  while  religious  motive-springs  and  mo¬ 
tives,  alone  can  effect  the  other.  The  one  task 
is  for  all  Christians  as  included  in  the  state. 
The  other  is  for  them  as  members  of  the 
church.  The  two  lines  of  activity  must  needs 
intermingle,  and  how  to  contrive  or  find  the 
right  relation  of  the  two  furnishes  a  constant 
question  of  conscience  for  every  Christian  man. 


92 


MENS  CHRIST I. 


It  would  be  a  very  easy  matter  to  show  at 
length  how  these  fetters  upon  human  moral 
freedom  exist  in  the  rude  and  rudest  human 
societies.  It  is  enough,  here,  to  instance  the 
defect  in  them  of  the  requisite  moral  knowl¬ 
edge.  Moral  alternatives,  indeed,  exist  in 
every  conscious  human  soul,  whether  sa^  age 
or  civilized,  i.  e.,  he  selects  one  course  of  activ¬ 
ity  rather  than  another  for  other  considera¬ 
tions  than  the  immediate  consequence  of  well- 
being  or  enjoyment  to  himself.  Unless  the 
innate  ability  so  to  decide  existed  as  a  sub¬ 
stratum,  further  moral  knowledge  could  not 
be  built  upon  it,  nor  could  altruistic  maxims 
of  conduct  ever  have  come  to  be  formulated. 
All  moral  knowledge  is  potential  in  the 
human  soul  as  such.  The  sense  of  duty,  how¬ 
ever  obscured  or  distorted,  lies  ineffaceably 
in  the  distinctively  human  structure,  and 
only  awaits  development.  The  very  posses¬ 
sion  of  language  shows  the  possibility  of  ad¬ 
vance  ;  and  although  the  real  advance  may 
have  been  too  slow  for  exterior  observation  to 
detect,  nevertheless  there  must  be  mm  ement, 
either  in  advance  or  retreat.  Nothing  in 
man’s  social  history,  or  in  his  psychical  his- 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


93 


tory,  any  more  than  in  his  physical  history, 
is  stationary.  And  one  result  of  this  move- 
ment  is  the  discovery,  by  slow  increments, 
by  what  kind  of  activity  the  innate  principle  of 
moral  development  should  realize  itself.  Not^ 
until  human  society  has  made  many  steps  in 
advance  does  the  current  of  this  moral  history 
become  clearer,  and  patent  for  observation,  but 
it  was  all  implicit  before.  All  a  posteriori  ob¬ 
servation,  patiently  conducted,  validates  this 
a  priori  conclusion. 

The  races  which  have  gone  very  far  along 
in  this  moral  pathway  can  understand  them¬ 
selves,  and  see  what  is  still  defective,  and  thus 
the  speed  of  moral  progress  can  be  accelerated. 
As  they  are  in  the  forefront  of  the  onward 
movement,  they  do  not  need  so  much  to  un¬ 
derstand  how  the}7  have  reached  this  position, 
as  to  understand  it  fully,  and  to  ask  what  is 
to  be  done  with  their  present  light.  They 
find  in  their  own  condition  too  much  igno¬ 
rance  still,  too  many  defects  to  make  it  seem 
a  duty  to  thrust  their  political  and  social  in¬ 
stitutions  upon  the  races  which  linger  behind 
them  in  the  onward  march.  They  must  mend 
and  perfect  their  own  condition,  ere  they  can 
sincerely  advise  it  for  others. 


94 


MENS  CHKISTI. 


The  neglect  of  this  accounts  for  the  failure 
of  so  many  missionary  and  civilizing  efforts. 
Into  our  intercourse  with  the  less  cultured 
peoples  we  carry  our  vices  in  the  fore-lront, 
and  let  them  conceal  our  virtues,  and  this 


causes  these  virtues  to  be  suspected  ot  insin¬ 
cerity.  “  We  ask  for  more  real  and  winning 
results  of  your  Christianity,' ’  the  heathen 
say,  u  before  we  are  ready  to  adopt  it ;  or,  if 
we  do  adopt  it,  it  is  for  political  ends,  rather 
than  because  the  results  are  such  as  to  prove 
the  truth  of  the  cardinal  principle  which  is 
recommended  to  us.” 


The  reformation,  then,  must  begin  at  home. 
This  is  the  burning  need  and  longing  which 
is  now  stirring  all  minds  who  long  for  such 
an  Utopia  as  the  religion  of  Christ  suggests, 

or  their  own  reason  approves. 

In  our  highly  complicated  human  society 
the  restrictions  upon  moral  freedom  have 
become  not  only  more  numeious,  but  rnoie 
refined  and  subtle.  The  ignorant  and  poor 
have  been  biassed  by  the  pressure  of  physical 
want,  or  by  instinctive  antagonism  to  the 
pressure  of  the  social  exclusiveness  of  the 
educated  and  the  rich.  And  these,  again, 


are 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE.  JD 

perpetually  tempted  to  retain  their  piivileges, 
and  to  sophisticate  away  the  instinctive 
human  craving  for  a  more  real  brotherhood. 
How  can  one  be  morally  free  in  the  pure  sense 
since  the  physical  want  is  so  imperious,  and 
demands  immediate  gratification?  How  can 
one  be  morally  free  in  the  pure  sense  when 
possessed  by  long’  sufferance  of  a  monopoly  of 
earthly  good  things,  and  subtly  tempted  to 
retain  them? 

The  reform  needed  is  vast  and  two-sided. 
Can  these  two  forms  of  human  temptation  be 
made  to  neutralize  each  other  and  settle  into 
an  equilibrium  ?  What  can  be  done  to  remove 
either  bias  and  bring  the  pure  alternatives  be¬ 
fore  human  moral  choice?  What  can  enable 
it  to  adopt  the  good,  not  for  immediate  self- 
interest,  but  because  it  is  rational,  and  the 
alone  form  of  an  ideal  state?  And  on  the 
other  hand  what  can  be  done,  that  it  may  not 
be  forced  into  evil,  but  be  free  to  identity  itself 
with  it  for  its  own  sake,  for  the  attractiveness 
of  spiritual  independency?  Whether  in  such 
an  actual  condition,  evil  will  not  have  lost 
its  attractiveness  is  another  question,  but  the 
faith  that  it  may  is  the  motive-spring  of  all 


96 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


human  moral  effort.  We  must  rescue  all  who 
now  ignorantly  choose  the  evil,  and  bring 
them  to  our  side,  and  this  we  can  do  only  by 
making  the  good  supremely  attractive.  If 
anv  shall  yet  refuse,  we  can  at  least  draw 
such  a  line  as  that  they  can  be  disting¬ 
uished  on  the  one  side,  and  not  be,  in  our 
observation,  intermingled  with  the  crowds  on 
the  other. 

The  needed  reformation  cannot  be  accom¬ 
plished  bv  any  one  method.  The  web  is  too 
complicated  for  any  one  to  unravel,  and  to 
eliminate  what  has  confused  the  perfect  pic¬ 
ture.  We  can  only,  bit  by  bit,  straighten  its 
distortions,  and  bring  all  to  self-consistency 
and  harmony.  But  if  simultaneous  efforts  are 
made  by  many,  each  individual  or  group  hav- 
ing  before  it  its  own  portion  to  be  rectified, 
we  can  bring  about  the  conditions  for  its  ulti¬ 
mate,  or,  at  least,  comparative  symmetrization. 
Hence  we  can  but  remove  one  social  excres¬ 
cence  at  a  time.  But  cautious  effort  is  indi¬ 
cated.  What  is  needed  is  a  reformation  that 
will  bring  about  a  revolution  insensibly  and 
make  every  one  content  with  it.  Sudden  revo¬ 
lutions  and  wars  are  violent  remedies,  some- 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


97 


times  needful,  but  bring  their  own  debris  of 
consequences  to  be  removed  ere  the  ground  is 
clear  for  onward  progress.  Human  intelli¬ 
gence,  guided  by  love,  not  only  will  carry  us 
in  a  smoother  career,  but  in  one  swifter,  than 
will  any  physical  violence.  The  civilized  na¬ 
tions  are  coming  to  see  that  w  ai  is  a  needless 
dialectic,  and  physical  violence  among  the 
needv  classes  in  the  civilized  societies  is  by 

t 

many  disavowed,  or  thought  ol  only  as  a  last 

t, 

despairing  resort.  It  behooves  the  educated 
classes  to  see  that  they  are  not  driven  to  this, 
and  to  seek  to  destroy  the  inclination  rather 

than  to  crush  the  outbreak. 

This  is  not  the  place  nor  time  to  discuss  any 
immediate  proposed  measures.  I  have  only 
sought  to  indicate  what  should  be  the  aim, 
and  what  the  moving-spring  in  all  individual 
or  concerted  effort. 

But.  on  the  other  hand,  we  must  not  forget 
that  all  this  human  effort  after  a  more  satis- 
fvin°'  social  state,  which  shall  make  men  fieei, 
and  the  whole  less  irrational,  should  not  be 
made  as  an  abstracted  effort  apart  from  the 
question  whether  it  can  have  any,  and  it  any, 
what  effect  upon  the  other  stream  of  human 


98 


MENS  CHRIST!. 


history  as  it  flows  on  in  the  realm  of  the  de- 

«y 

parted.  These  are  members  of  the  human  race 
as  well  as  we.  The  final  cause  of  all  moral  effort 
must  then  be  something  more  than  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  a  social  state  here  on  earth  which 
will  satisfy  the  reason  when  realized  in  an 
existing  generation,  or  series  of  generations, 
which  are  soon  to  pass  away  to  the  other  side, 
— but,  besides,  to  produce  an  organism  of 
which  they,  as  well  as  we,  shall  be  constituent 
members  : 

“  They,  without  us  cannot  be  made  perfect.7’ 

Is  it  then  in  our  power  to  influence  human 
history  as  it  proceeds  under  the  environment 
which  is  to  ensue  when  these  immortal  beings 
close  their  eyes  to  the  immediate  phenomenal 
world?  Were  this  last  all  in  all,  it  seems 
not  much  matter  in  what  state  we  are,  or  into 
what  imagined  immunity  from  present  sorrows 
we  can  urge  the  coming  generations.  To 
know  that  we  shall  have  gone  over  this  tortur¬ 
ing  process  for  their  problematical  benefit 
alone  is  a  pessimistic  conclusion,  assaulting 
our  cheerfulness  and  deadening  our  energy. 
But  once  arouse  the  hope  or  impart  the  con¬ 
viction  that  our  present  improvement  and 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


99 


their  future  improvement  can  react  upon  the 
foregone  generations,  and  an  optimistic  feeling 
is  aroused,  and  we  can  be  cheerful  under  any 
sacrifices. 

It  is  just  here  that  Christian  philosophy 
shows  itself  profounder  than  the  philosophy 
which  underlies  many  projected  political  and 
social  movements.  It  draws  its  conclusion 
from  a  larger  induction.  It  gives  a  more  ex¬ 
haustive  definition  of  humanity,  and  thinks 
of  all  his  possible  relations  to  the  universe  as 
as  well  as  of  these  present  ones.  It  gives  per¬ 
manent  and  absolute  value  to  human  char¬ 
acter,  or  rather  to  the  human  soul  as  possessing 
this  character,  instead  of  regarding  him  as  a 
mere  link  in  a  physical  or  logical  chain.  It 
is  thus  individualistic,  as  well  as  socialistic.  It 
regards  the  organism,  not  as  an  abstraction 
having  completeness  for  the  aesthetic  demand 
only,  but  as  made  up  of  individual  souls,  each 
a  microcosm  in  itself,  reflecting,  as  it  endures, 
more  and  more  perfectly  the  macrocosm.  It 
thinks  the  highest  in  man,  not  that  he  can 
feel  and  think  and  know,  but  that  he  can 
love  and  enjoy.  He  who  can  love  purely  and 
persistently  is  thereby  congener  to  the  Highest, 


100 


MENS  CHRIST! . 


and  a  grander  creation  than  all  these  systems 
of  stars  and  nebulae  that  fill  the  illimitable 
space  ;  and  the  present  aim  of  Christianity  is  to 
remove  all  obscurations  from  the  vision  of  this 
love,  that  its  bliss  may  be  secure.  It  recog¬ 
nizes  not  only  that  physical  sympathy  exists 
and  binds  together  all  human  life,  and  all 
animal  life  as  well ;  not  only  that  mental  sym¬ 
pathy  exists,  and  that  the  field  of  knowledge 
is  common  property,  but  that  moral  sympathy 
exists  and  should  have  its  fetters  removed, 
and  a  truer  development  be  made  possible,  and 
thus  a  finer  and  more  spiritual  union  come  to 
be. 

If,  then,  in  the  realm  of  the  departed, 
human  history  still  proceeds,  it  must  be  in¬ 
fluenced  by  the  streams  which  are  continually 
pouring  into  it  from  the  living  generations. 
If  a  purer  and  stronger  love,  or  an  increasing 
increment  of  spiritual  strength  shall  character¬ 
ize  these  successive  inflowings,  the  principle  of 
good  must  be  thereby  strengthened,  and  the 
speed  of  the  entire  moral  progress  be  accele¬ 
rated. 

If  human  life  here  on  earth  have  any 
meaning  other  than  physical  for  the  in- 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


101 


dividual,  it  is  that  it  is  the  occasion,  or  the 
condition  for  moral  choice  or  probation,  some¬ 
times  consciously  made,  and  sometimes  made 
unconsciously  and  obscurely,  and  in  depths 
which  exterior  intelligence  cannot  penetrate. 

And  if  the  existence  after  death  have  any 
significance,  it  must  be  in  part  that  it  fui- 
nishes  the  conditions  for  the  development  of 
the  moral  or  loving  principle,  for  the  invigo- 
ration  of  the  moral  status,  and  the  possibility 
of  indefectibility  for  such  as  have  on  earth 
committed  themselves  to  this  alternative. 
That  the  knowledge  of  Clod,  and  of  the  divine 
self-limitation,  whereby  the  human  race  has 
been  morally  reached,  must  be  afforded  to  all 
who  have  passed  beyond  the  veil  follows  as  a 
corollary  from  the  admission  of  the  organic 
unitv  of  mankind.  Not  otherwise  can  the 
utmost  potentiality  of  the  creature  be  elicited. 
That  the  ignorant,  degraded  and  seemingly 
neglected  ones  shall  be  afforded  this  knowl¬ 
edge,  follows ;  or  else  we  divide  mankind,  or 
even  the  morally  good,  into  two  organisms, 
with  an  impassable  wall  of  separation,  and 
we  have  another  dualism  with  its  attendant 
difficulties. 


102 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


But,  while  ultimate  assimilation  shall  thus 
be  reached  by  all  having  the  quality  of  moral 
good,  and  thus  it  be  literally  true  that  none 
are  saved  but  through  the  knowledge  of  Christ, 
and  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  obli¬ 
gation  is  none  the  less  to  accelerate  the  speed 
of  the  progress.  Hence  we  are  adding  to  the 
strength  of  good  by  seeing  to  it  that  the 
generations  pass  away  from  the  earth  as  far 
advanced  in  good  as  possible.  It  will  not  do 
for  love  to  slumber  and  be  inactive.  Thereby 
it  is  weakened  as  love.  The  divine  love  itself 
requires  for  its  satisfaction  that  it  be  met  by 
human  responsive  love,  as  the  divine  glory 
may  be  enriched  by  the  glory  of  the  creature. 
When  Christian  love  relaxes  in  its  zeal,  it  is 
in  peril  of  extinguishment.  Thereby  the 
moral  force  as  it  may  display  itself  in  duties  to 
the  existing  generations  may  undergo  dimin¬ 
ution,  and  thence  will  follow  the  very  mental 
ignorance  and  physical  evils  we  are  seeking  to 
modifv.  Thus  Christian  love  may  be  indi- 
reetly  remedial  by  removing  our  social  imper¬ 
fections,  and  directly  remedial  by  diffusing 
itself,  and  strengthening  the  principle  of 
good.  By  the  latter  effort  it  reaches  the  de- 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE  FUTURE. 


103 


parted  generations,  and  thus  hastens  on  the 
consummation . 

How  to  apportion  one’s  activity  to  bring 
about  one  result  or  the  other  is  a  question  for 
the  individual  soul,  as  such.  But  it  is  also 
a  question  for  concerted  effort.  Here  the 
doctrine  of  the  Christian  ( much  comes  m, 
as  an  institution  enabling  such  concerted 
effort.  It  must  needs  respect  both  purposes. 
Yery  perplexing  problems  at  once  arise.  How 
far  shall  it  identify  itself  with  any  movement 
for  social  improvement  originating  beyond 
itself?  Under  what  restrictions,  with  due 
regard  to  other  divine  institutions,  shall  it 
originate  such  efforts  ?  And  this  again  brings 
up  the  prior  questions :  how  it  shall  define 
itself,  and  what  is  its  function  in  the  world? 
How  far  has  it  an  unchangeable  constitution  ? 
What  are  the  possibilities,  without  sacrificing 
or  maiming  this  constitution,  ot  its  adapting 
itself  to  existing  circumstances  ?  And  as  its 
ministry  must  always  be  in  the  forefront  of  its 
efforts,  what  are  the  duties  and  limitations  of 
this  ministry? 

Any  one  of  these  questions  might  supply  a 

kJ 

topic  for  an  essay  or  a  treatise.  In  the  follow- 


104 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


ing  lecture  I  shall  touch  them  all,  though 
but  lightly.  Nevertheless  I  shall  give  an 
outline  of  what  ought  to  be  the  consecutive, 
or  logical  treatment,  and  might  be  an  exhaust¬ 
ive  treatment  of  the  same, — the  denomination 
of  which  will  be  “  the  functions  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  ministry.”  . 


LECTURE  IV. 


THE  FUNCTIONS  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 

Man  regarded  as  simply  an  individual  is 
but  a  poor  being.  He  only  rises  in  the 
scale  of  our  regard  and  becomes  richer  by 
virtue  of  his  relations  to  others,  and  through 
these  he  is  capable  of  an  endless  amplifica¬ 
tion.  In  order  to  this  physical,  mental,  so¬ 
cial,  moral  and  religious  instincts,  or  involun¬ 
tary  proclivities  are  implanted  in  his  structure. 
These  are  elicited  by  an  activity  upon  him 
from  or  through  his  environment,  or  by  more 
direct  and  mystical  influence,  but  there  is 
that  in  him  which  immediately  responds,  so 
that  he  voluntarily  acquiesces  in  the  quick¬ 
ening  determination.  It  is  a  most  interest- 
ing  enquiry,  or  branch  of  science,  which 
notes  that  there  is  a  premonition  of  much 
of  this  in  the  stratum  of  existence  immedi¬ 
ately  below  him  : — in  the  animal  kingdom. 

t 

Even  here,  the  individual  rises  to  a  higher 
definition  as  member  of  a  species,  and  some¬ 
times  of  a  commonwealth,  and  we  have  the 


105 


106 


MENS  CHRIST!. 


possibility  of  our  own  social,  political  and 
moral  conditions  pre-imaged. 

In  consequence  of  these  instincts  in  hu¬ 
manity,  the  members  of  a  human  family 
cling  together.  That  they  do  so  under  modi- 

O  O 


fications,  as  other  animals  do  not,  to  the  end 
of  life,  is  because  man  is  also,  as  they  are 
not,  a  religious  animal,  and  therefore  capable 
of  a  finer  and  more  permanent  tie.  Unknow¬ 
ing  why,  the  members  of  a  family  feel  and 
act  as  though  they  were  in  some  sense  one; 
and  the  conflicting  interests  afterwards  arising, 
may  weaken,  but  do  not  destroy  the  tie.  The 
opposing  or  centrifugal  influences  are  superin¬ 
duced,  and  change  with  the  change  of  cir¬ 
cumstances,  while  the  centripetal  drawing  is 
incessant,  and  never  entirely  unfelt. 

In  the  social  fabric,  or  the  political  state, 
personality  develops  into  still  further  impli¬ 
cations.  Here  each  individual  has  been  limited 
in  order  to  be  enlarged.  He  has  parted  with 
something  of  his  individuality,  in  order  to 
receive  in  return  something  of  more  value 
to  himself  than  that  he  has  parted  with. 
He  has  lost  something  of  his  liberty,  and 
come  to  feel  his  dependence  upon  others, 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


107 


but  sees  that  others  have  also  become  de¬ 
pendent  upon  him,  and  that  the  sphere  of 
his  own  activity  has  been  widened  rather 
than  narrowed,  since  it  reaches  farther  from 
himself.  This  more  complicated  inter-relation 
is  svmbolized  by  divers  social,  external  and 
visible  ay  meant  ions,  and  by  the  created  gov- 

OO  O 

ernments.  These  are  the  symbols  of  the  unity 
and  common  interests  of  the  individuals  of 
the  same. 

Men,  possessed  by  similar  ideas,  or  convic¬ 
tions,  feel  this  to  be  also  a  bond,  and  a  finer  one. 
These  convictions  guide  or  rule  their  activity, 
and  thev  invariably  invent  some  symbol  which 
shall  indicate  and  keep  fast  this,  their  com¬ 
mon  possession.  When  any  one  becomes 
absorbed  in  a  thought,  new  or  old,  he  seeks 
sympathy  to  strengthen  his  own  possession 
of  it,  to  confirm  it  as  a  true  possession,  to 
aid  him  in  the  endeavor  to  extend  it. 

In  proportion  as  the  sympathy  springs 
from  a  more  and  more  valuable  possession, 
does  it  more  urgently  seek  to  secure  itself 

Co 

in  this  by  extending  it.  Eminently  this  is 

»_  CO  t/ 

true  of  the  religious  relation.  This  ever 
seeks  to  fasten  securely  together  its  adherents. 


108 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


It  combines  often  with  the  social  and  ethical 
relations,  and  makes  them  to  minister  to  its 
uses  and  its  aims.  It  seeks  to  gather  into 
its  own  unity  whatever  is  needful  tor  its 

t 

own  sustentation.  That  the  religious  bond 
is  token  of  a  profounder  tie,  is  shown  by  the 
fact,  that  it  survives  amid  the  passing  away 
of  political  structures,  and  social  integrations. 
It  fixes  its  own  thoughts  by  symbols,  and 
the  permanence  of  those  symbols  in  the  his¬ 
tory  of  all  religions  is  another  proof  that 
this  tie  has  reached  to  a  profounder  depth 
in  human  nature  than  any  other.  When 
conflict  has  come  this  has,  in  the  main,  been 

found  to  be  the  victor. 

If  the  cardinal  principle  of  this  religion  is 
love ,  it  has  the  utmost  increment  of  vitality, 
and  is,  from  its  very  definition,  immortal. 
Superadded  to,  and  possibly  coalescing  with 
other  bonds,  it  becomes,  concretely,  the  strong¬ 
est  possible  tie  to  bind  men  together.  And 
if  its  sympathetic  aim  respects  the  whole 
human  race,  through  it  is  the  largest  develop¬ 
ment  and  ultimate  definition  of  personality 
reached.  For  while  all  these  other  instincts 
respect  the  transient,  this  alone  respects  the 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


1 09 


permanent  human  relation.  Families  may 
fall  to  pieces,  states  may  crumble  and  dis¬ 
appear,  the  subjective  apprehension  of  truth 
may  deal  with  changing  object-matter,— but 

*J 

the  bond  of  loving  souls  is  indestructible. 


As  possessors  of  new  thoughts, 
new  aims  for  activity  and  new 


as  having 
emotions, 


all  unified  by  this  immortal  bond  of  love, 
the  followers  of  Jesus  Christ  were  tied  to¬ 
gether  by  the  deepest  and  strongest  possible 
sympathy.  They  saw  that  it  need  not  con¬ 
flict  with  other  ties,  but  if  it  ever  should, 
these  must  give  way.  Here  was  an  econom- 

o  v 

ical  motive,  added  to  the  instinctive  prompt¬ 
ing,  why  they  should  consociate  together,  and 
create  some  symbol  of  this,  their  unique 
common  possession;  and  this  intended  not 
only  to  mark  themselves  to  each  other,  and 
to  the  alien  ones,  as  a  distinct  people,  to 
keep  them  true  to  each  other,  and  arrest 
any  propensity  to  wander  away,  or  grow 
weak  in  their  allegiance,  but  to  strengthen 
the  sympathetic  bond  itself.  Of  their  own 
impulse  they  would  have  done  this. 

Foreseeing  this,  and  laying  hold  of  these 
indestructible  propensities  of  human  nature, 


110 


MENS  CHKISTI. 


their  Master  and  Teacher  gave  them  what 
they  needed,  what  they  must  have,  and  what 
they  would  have  created  for  themselves,  ci 
church.  They  were  already  an  ecclesia ,  having 
subjective  fitness,  though  arising  from  exter¬ 
nal  selection,  but  at  first,  no  objective  bond 
or  svmbol  of  their  allegiance  existed.  They 
could  not  be  left  to  be  bound  together  by 
the  conscious  and  subjective  tie  only.  They 
were  not  yet  ripe  for  that.  They  still  were 
not  morally  and  religiously  strong  enough  to 
be  left  to  their  own  spontaneity.  They  needed 
to  be  guarded  from  external  assault  and 
internal  temptation.  Their  imperfect  wisdom 
needed  to  be  supplemented  by  a  deeper,  and 
more  far-seeing  wisdom.  They  could  not  reach 
the  intended  perfection  by  a  leap,  but  must  go 
through  a  period  of  trial  to  bring  out  and  in¬ 
crease  their  strength.  And  so  he  gave  them 
beforehand  what  they  would  have  invented 
for  themselves,  external  marks  and  symbols; 
and,  as  coming  from  him,  these  should  not 
be  changeable  by  any  after  caprice.  And 
these  marks  were  so  carefully  chosen  as  to 
be  profoundly  symbolic.  In  the  full  signifi¬ 
cance  of  the  rites  of  Baptism  and  the  Holy 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


Ill 


Supper  we  have  all  that  is  distinctive  in  the 
new  revelation  from  God,  all  the  profound 
truth  now  made  known,  appropriated  and 
felt,  imaged,  and  discoverable.  dims  they 
have  obligation  not  only  as  tokens  of  Christian 
profession,  but  as  having  teaching  power,  as 
preservatives  of  the  truths  they  veil.  Even 
for  these  reasons  alone  they  must  be  un¬ 
changeable.  And  if,  beside,  there  can  be  vindi¬ 
cated  the  doctrine  that  they  were  made  chan¬ 
nels  of  divine  grace,  media  for  influences 
mystical  and  beneath  knowledge,  this  is  still 
another  reason  to  secure  their  permanency. 
If  this  new  consociation  is  to  exist  as  one, 
there  arises  thus  the  utmost  need  and  the 
highest  possible  inducement  to  preserve  these 
marks,  symbols,  or  sacraments  in  their  in¬ 
tegrity. 

And  besides,  if  this  new  society,  this 
eeclesia ,  is  to  exist  not  only  to  strengthen 
the  inner  bond  which  ties  its  members  to¬ 
gether,  but  if  by  virtue  of  this  very  tie 
they  must  long  for  further  sympathy,  and 
gather  new  adherents  and  friends  from  the 
outlying  world,  there  emerges  another  reason 
why  they  should  be  bound  by  these  visible  and 


112 


MENS  CHRIST I. 


unchangeable  marks.  Thereby  only  can  they 
seek  unitedly,  as  well  as  individually,  to 
extend  their  compass;  and  organized  efforts 
can  become  possible,  of  more  power  to  work 
changes  in  the  exterior  world  than  any  num¬ 
ber  of  smaller,  less  carefully  meditated,  or 
individually  impulsive  efforts. 

But, — on  the  other  hand, — while  these 
marks,  symbols,  or  sacraments  of  the  new 
society  are  needful  for  those  yet  on  the  path- 
wav  towards,  and  not  yet  at  the  summit  of 
the  intended  perfection,  it  is  in  accoi dance 
with  the  cardinal  principle  of  the  new  re¬ 
ligion  itself  that  they  should  be  as  few  as 

to  v 

possible,  and  not  from  their  number  consti¬ 
tute  a  bondage.  Other  rites  and  observations 
might  thereafter  be  superimposed,  arising  from 
new  requirements,  but  these  must  be  transi¬ 
tory  in  their  nature,  and  changeable  or  re¬ 
movable  by  those  who  may  have  as  much 
wisdom  as  those  who  imposed  them.  The 
very  idea  or  conception  of  love,  as  in  its 
perfection  pure  spontaneity,  requires  that  it 
should  gradually  relax  and  remove  its  own 
fetters.  The  weaker  love,  the  more  need  of 
law  and  external  guidance.  The  stronger  the 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


113 


love,  the  less  need  of  law ;  and  lor  perfect 
love  there  is  no  law,  for  it  is  at  one  with 
the  divine  love.  Hence  the  profound  wisdom 
of  Jesus  Christ  in  creating  only  these  two 
marks  of  disciplesliip,  and  making  them 
obligatory.  These  must  remain  as  means  for 
identification,  because,  till  the  end,  as  far  as 
we  can  see,  there  is  to  be  antagonism,  and 
conflict  with  hostile  influences. 

In  admitting,  more  or  less  intelligently, 
all  this,  Christian  people  have  been  almost 
universally  agreed,  and  nearly  every  self- 
formed  association  of  professed  followers  of 
Jesus  Christ  has  retained  the  rites  of  Baptism 
and  the  Lord’s  Supper.  Anything  else,  in 
external  observance,  they  have  concluded, 
may  be  changed  or  abandoned,  but  these  may 
not  be. 

In  the  earliest  Christian  clays,  when  all 
were  rejoicing  in  their  new  possession,  the 
impulse  was  universal  and  irrepressible  to 
impart  to  others  the  knowledge  of  their  own 
riches.  Hence  all  Christians  were  preachers 
of  the  gospel.  And  it  would  seem,  from  the 
historic  evidence  in  our  possession,  that  they 
also,  of  their  own  individual  impulse,  or  under 


114 


MENS  CHRIST!. 


guidance,  administered,  when  their  preaching 
was  successful,  the  initiatory  Christian  rite. 
In  this  consists  what  is  called  the  universal 
Christian  priesthood,  from  which  any  further 
priesthood  arises  by  limitation.  They  were 
mediators  between  God  and  the  world,  and 
their  very  love  made  this  mediation  watchful, 
active  and  incessant.  But  it  soon  became  ap¬ 
parent,  and  it  arises  also  from  the  nature  of 
the  case,  that  the  disposition  and  permission 
to  preach  and  teach  and  administer  Baptism 
might  be  unwisely  used.  And  thus,  on  a  priori 
grounds,  there  appears  the  need,  for  the  purity 
of  the  society,  of  a  limitation  to  this  permis¬ 
sion  ;  and  so  it  came  to  pass,  obviously  or 
insensibly,  that  these  high  privileges  came  to 
be  exercised  by  those  thought  best  fitted  to 
use  them  wisely.  The  teaching  of  the  more 
competent  came  to  be  regarded  as  more  trust¬ 
worthy  and  authoritative,  and  their  superior 
discretion  in  bestowing  the  rite  of  initiation 
to  be  admitted.  But  the  inherent  right,  how¬ 
ever  limited  for  economical  reasons,  still 
remained.  All  this  might  be  amply  illus¬ 
trated  from  Christian  history. 

There  is  no  historical  evidence  that  the 


CH  R  1ST  I  AN  M  IN  I  ST  R  Y . 


115 


administration  of  the  other  Christian  rite  or 
sacrament  was  ever  general  or  thrown  open. 
Here  a  more  marked  limitation  seems  to  he 
required  from  the  necessity  of  the  situation. 
The  discretion  needed  to  distinguish  those 
who  were  fitted  to  share  in  this  observance 
was  not  the  common  Christian  possession. 
The  benefit  of  this  sacrament,  and,  indeed, 
its  ideal  and  perfect  administration  itself, 
requires  that  those  uniting  in  it  should  be 
free  from  unrepented  sin,  and  should  be  one 
in  the  possession  of  the  sacrificial  mind,  and 
thus  be  competent,  in  the  only  profound  and 
true  sense,  to  “shew  forth  the  Lord’s  death.” 
If  this  should  be  wanting  in  all  those  joining 
in  the  observance,  it  would  become  a  mere 
mechanical  performance.  Therefore  its  ad¬ 
ministration  must  he  entrusted  to  the  wisdom 
of  those  competent  to  judge  of  the  fitness  of 
those  who  propose  to  unite  in  it,  and  these 
are  supposed  to  have  been  trained  for  this 
very  purpose.  Thus  the  profound  significance 
of  the  rite  itself  required  that  it  should  not 
be  thrown  open  to  the  general  impulse.  The 
requirements  of  law  as  limiting  spontaneity 
are  here  most  apparent.  Thus  we  have  a 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


116 


speculative  vindication  of  the  universal  Chris¬ 
tian  practice  of  allowing  the  administration  of 
this  rite  only  to  a  limited  and  specially  fitted 
priesthood. 

Historically  we  learn  that  the  universal 
Christian  priesthood  was  thus  limited.  On 
these  a  priori  grounds,  for  some  minds  quite 
as  convincing  as  the  others,  we  learn  why  it 
should  have  been  so  limited.  The  question 
now  arises  how  and  when  it  became  thus 
limited.  Can  we  trace  back  this  limitation 
to  any  authority  not  to  be  declined  ?  Can 
we  connect  it  immediately  or  mediately  to 
any  prescription  of  the  Founder  of  the  re¬ 
ligion  himself?  AVas  its  evolution,  though 
acknowledged  to  be  gradual,  presided  over  by 
acknowledged  authority  ?  Did  J esus  Christ, 
in  short,  add  a  third  requirement  to  the 
economic  dispensation,  and  create  a  ministry , 
and  did  his  inspired  apostles  guide  its  devel¬ 
opment  ?  That  his  eleven  disciples,  and  Paul, 
claimed  to  possess  authority,  and  a  commission 
delegated  by  Jesus  Christ,  seems  apparent 
enough  from  the  New  Testament  narratives, 
and  other  writings.  Concretely,  then,  it 
would  seem  that  a  ministry  did  exist  before 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


117 


the  Christian  sacraments.  For  these  only 
came  to  be,  actually,  on  and  after  the  day  of 
Pentecost.  This  body  of  men  were  held  to  be 
the  bearers  of  the  trust  in  a  higher  sense  than 
were  the  common  disciples.  The  very  defer¬ 
ence  paid  them  is  evidence  of  this.  If  facts 
are  as  good  evidence  as  prescriptions,  and 
interpret  the  latter,  it  does  seem  that  they 
were  left  in  possession  of  plenary  powers,  and 
that  the  authority  possessed  by  their  Master 
was  delegated  to  them,  and  that  lor  the  wise 
exercise  of  it  they  were  promised  the  mystical 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  And  if  this 
mystical  influence  respected  a  particular 
Divine  purpose,  if  there  be  valid  ground  lor 
holding  to  the  inspiration  of  any  selected 
ones  in  a  higher  sense,  and  for  more  special 
aims,  than  the  universal  inspiration  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  then  this  alone  would  give  them 
such  authority  and  demand  the  corresponding 
respect.  If  we  admit  more  than  ordinary  in¬ 
sight  in  their  written  words,  we  cannot  coniine 
their  inspiration  to  these,  but  must  think  it 
to  pervade  their  entire  mental  consciousness, 
to  guide  them  in  their  ordinary  speech  and 
in  their  prescriptions.  No  separation,  in  the 


118 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


nature  of  the  case  seems  possible.  Whether 
these  prescriptions  were  for  the  immediate 
situation  only,  or  were  permanent  in  their 
intent  and  hence  in  their  obligation,  and,  if 
the  latter,  how  far  flexible,  is  a  question  that 
may  be  profoundly  argued,  as  to  which  Chris¬ 
tian  men  seem  now  in  hopeless  disagreement, 
but  which  will  one  day  be  satisfactorily 
answered. 

That  what  the  apostles  did,  as  well  as  what 
they  said,  arose  from  the  needs  of  the  existing 
situation  is  indubitable.  They  gave  commis¬ 
sions,  and  created  offices  according  as  the 
need  was  apparent.  There  is  no  evidence  that 
they  trusted  to  a  prior  prescription  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Rather,  they  followed  the  monitions 
of  their  own  consciousness,  divinely  illu¬ 
mined.  Some  of  these  offices  were  transient 
and  passed  away  insensibly,  and,  as  far  as  we 
can  learn,  without  remonstrance.  But  others 
either  met  with  no  shocks,  or  withstood  all 
shocks  and  became  permanent.  When  the 
former  ones  had  passed  away,  and  the  current 
of  history  becomes  clear,  we  find  still  sur¬ 
viving  some,  the  origin  of  whose  prescription 
is  related  in  the  New  Testament.  The  ministry 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


119 


separated  itself  naturally  into  a  threefold 
function.  One  set  of  activities  after  another 
was  parted  with  by  the  governing  powers. 
First,  they  disengaged  from  themselves  the 
care  required  for  physical  relief,  and  created 
an  order  of  deacons.  Next,  they  abandoned 
the  work  of  education  and  edification,  growing 
all  the  while  more  urgent  in  its  needs,  to  a 
more  carefully  selected  body  of  men,  reserv¬ 
ing  to  themselves  still  the  oversight;  and 
ultimately  there  came  to  exist,  somehow, 
sharers  in  the  task  of  oversight,  who  became 
in  this  respect,  their  successors.  Thus  natur¬ 
ally  grew  up  the  Christian  ministry.  Phis 
threefoldness  of  function  perennially  exists, 
whether  exercised  by  men  alike  in  name  and 
office,  or  anyhow  distinguished.  What  might 
be  confined  to  one  was  separated  into  three, 
and  what  is  exercised  by  three  may  conversely 
be  absorbed  into  one.  Even  when  a  threefold 
order  is  continued,  the  functions  necessarily 
run  into  each  other.  Hence,  from  the  first,  the 
deacons  authoritatively  preached  and  baptized, 
and  when  thought  to  have  sufficient  wisdom 
were  elevated  to  another  function,  and  en¬ 
trusted  with  the  right  to  administer  the  Holy 


120 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


Supper.  This  function,  as  we  have  seen, 
required  great  wisdom,  and  a  training  in  this 
produced  a  fitness  for  the  required  oversight, 
the  need  of  which  perennially  exists,  and  is 
always  exercised  by  some.  1  hat  with  the 
chan  mu  a  conditions  of  mankind  new  adap- 

c  O 

tations  may  be  required,  and  thus  that  the 
ministry  must  have  a  kind  of  flexibility,  is 
indubitable,  and  can  be  historically  illustrated. 
The  separate  functions  may  become  less 
strongly  marked  and  he  barely  distinguishable. 
Hence,  comparing  our  present  with  the  primi¬ 
tive  ministry,  we  find  much  modification, 
and  that,  practically,  the  intermediate  order 
has  absorbed  into  itself  much  that  was  at  first 
distinctive  of  the  Diaconate  and  of  the  Episco¬ 
pate. 

On  these  grounds  it  may  be  held  that  a 
ministry  is  a  mark  of  the  Christian  church 
as  well  as  the  two  rites  of  Baptism,  and  the 
Supper  of  the  Lord. 

Moreover  as  these  two  rites  were  symbolic, 
so  the  apostles  themselves  devised  a  symbol, 
but  one  less  profound  in  significance,  of  the 
separation  for  the  uses  of  this  ministry  ;  and 
we  have  the  rite  of  laying  on  of  hands  in 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


121 


ordination.  And  if  the  Christian  brotherhood 
is  to  be  kept  bound  together  there  seems  no 
reason  why  it  should  ever  decline  this  any 
more  than  it  may  the  observance  of  the  two 
sacraments,  although  the  authority  for  it  is  one 
step  farther  removed  from  the  source.  Other¬ 
wise,  the  bond  of  union  is  weakened,  external 
unity  impaired,  and  there  become  divergent 
threads  of  history  that  have  to  be  caught  up 
and  bound  together  again. 

In  all  this,  is  the  argument  for  the  need, 
the  existence,  and  the  mode  of  perpetuation 
of  the  Christian  ministry.  I  have  sought  thus 
to  state  it  on  grounds,  for  the  most  part  specu¬ 
lative,  or  a  priori ,  leaving  to  other  hands  the 
ampler  historical  illustration  of  the  same. 
The  argument  is  founded  upon  the  needs  of 
the  economy,  and  endeavors  to  show  it  as  a 
system  of  means  entirely  natural,  truly  rational, 
and  ideally  fitted  to  accomplish  a  still  ulterior 
result,  namely,  the  perfection  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  character  as  the  condition  for  the  process 
of  regeneration  ;  even  though  we  admit  that 
that  ulterior  result  may  be  reached  through  a 
system  less  complete.  God  overrules  men’s 
mistakes,  and  accomplishes  his  loving  purposes, 


122 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


even  though  men  misuse  their  freedom  in  not 
following  his  true  prescriptions,  or  are  ignorant 
of  them. 

And  now,  without  further  treatment  of 
these  debated  topics,  let  us  ask  what  are 
the  functions  of  the  Christian  ministry  such 
as  we  have  it.  And  I  do  not  mean  by  this 
how  we  shall  distinguish  the  differing  func¬ 
tions  of  bishops,  priests  and  deacons ;  but 
how,  since  they  all  have  one  end  in  view, 
into  what  different  sorts  of  activities  their 
common  work  is  divisible. 

And  first,  they  are  in  our  own  day,  the 
administrators  of  the  Christian  sacraments, 
and  usually  the  conductors  in  Christian  wor- 

t 

ship.  The  propensity  exists  in  human  nature 
itself  not  to  enter  into  the  full  religious 
significance  of  these  mediatorial  observances, 

o 

and  sometimes  it  may  be  lost  sight  of  almost 
entirely,  and  the  administration  or  conduct 

t  * 

become  a  mere  set  of  mechanical  acts.  We 
need  not  think  that  they  are  invalid,  in 
consequence,  or  destitute  of  effect  upon  others  ; 
but  if  the  performance  has  lost  its  inner  soul, 
their  beneficial  effect  upon  others  is  greatly 
diminished.  The  people  readily  detect  the 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


123 


difference  between  a  lifeless  and  heartless 
utterance,  and  one  in  which  the  thought 
and  feeling  of  the  utterer  affect  even  the  tone 
of  his  voice,  and  produce  an  influence  upon 
others  mystical  and  not  easy  to  measure. 
And  the  effect  upon  a  Christian  minister  of 
a  superstitious  view  of  his  own  functions, 
by  which  he  regards  himself  as  a  magical 
medium  between  God  and  man  (a  notion 
often  the  result  of  a  shallow  theory),  is  to 

harden  the  utterance  of  such  an  one  and 

> 

make  it  less  sympathetic.  He  hurries  over 

his  work  in  a  perfunctory  way,  may  not  rule 

his  own  thoughts  meanwhile,  and  displays 

no  emotion,  or  may  not  feel  it.  That  in 

* 

some  a  view  so  low  as  this  of  the  function 
of  the  Christian  minister  sometimes  exists  as 
a  justification  of  his  methods,  is  probably 
true.  The  propensity  towards  it  always  exists 
in  our  poor  human  nature,  which  is  never 
entirely  rid  of  superstition,  from  which  the 
extremest  culture  has  never  entirely  emanci¬ 
pated  a  single  soul.  This,  which  we  cul¬ 
tured  ones  fight  against,  in  other  monitions 
of  the  same,  requires  especially  to  be  struggled 
with  in  the  uses  of  the  ministry,  and  can, 


124 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


perhaps,  be  most  successfully  supplanted  by 
displaying  its  higher  ends  and  finei  purposes, 
which  are  ethical  or  religious. 

An  influence,  somewhat  counteracting  to 
this  propensity,  is  supplied  by  the  needs  of 
Christian  preaching.  Here  the  requirement 
is  obvious  that  the  minister  should  come  into 
more  immediate  mental  relation  with  his 
auditors,  and  avail  himself  of  whatevei  re¬ 
sources  he  possesses.  But  here,  too,  the  need¬ 
ful  thought  processes,  and  whatever  feeling 
may  have  accompanied  them,  may  have  been 
entirely  expended  in  the  composition  of  the 
written  sermon,  and  its  delivery  after  all, 
become  a  mere  perfunctory  performance,  a 
task  to  be  got  over,  and  excluded  from  the 
mind.  The  vehicle  of  utterance  may  he  dis¬ 
regarded  or  undervalued,  and  the  mystical 
influence  and  effect  of  speech  and  sound  he 
entirely  missed.  In  preaching,  surely  emotion 
is  to  be  called  forth,  as  well  as  the  thought 
imparted.  The  purpose  of  it  is  such  knowledge 
as  will  determine  activity,  and  as  will  make 
the  motive-spring  of  such  activity  warm 
and  strong.  The  power  of  sweet  sound,  when 
guided  by  imagination,  to  sink  into  the  very 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


125 


depths  of  the  human  soul,  is  seen  in  the 
charm  of  music,  and  well-modulated  speech 
may  have  a  similar  charm.  The  mental 
proposition  is  veiled  in  the  sensuous  utter¬ 
ance,  and  this  last  may  penetrate  more 
deeply  into  the  roots  of  being  than  the 
other.  A  tone,  sweet  and  tender,  informed 
by  soul  emotion,  kindles  often  into  a  fire 
the  slumbering  thought  even  of  the  audi¬ 
tor  ;  and  calls  forth  its  own  sympathetic 
response. 

According  to  his  ability  it  is  incumbent 
upon  every  Christian  preacher  to  make  use 
of  this  power.  And  for  this  end  physical 
culture  is  not  to  be  despised,  though  it  is 
still  required  that  this  should  be  at  the 
service  of  Christian  love. 

And  the  thought  which  he  is  thus  effect¬ 
ively  to  utter  ought  to  be  his  own.  To  be 
able  to  enshrine  the  thought  of  another  in 
this  sensuous  vehicle  and  make  the  latter 
exquisitely  symbolic,  is  a  rare  natural  gift, 
and  the  result  of  genius  or  inspiration ; 
though  the  ability  in  lesser  degree  may  be 
acquired  by  art  and  training.  A  more  than 
ordinary  vividness  of  imagination  is  required 


126 


MENS  CHRIST I. 


to  enable  one  to  infuse  his  own  soul  into 
the  words  of  another.  The  variant  ability 
to  do  this  marks  the  different  degrees  of 


excellence  and  effectiveness  in  the  reading 
of  Holy  Scripture.  It  is  a  good  test,  ceteris 
paribus,  oi  one’s  imaginative  povei. 

But  it  is  by  no  means  a  rare  ability  to 
utter  one’s  own  thought  effectively.  In  pro¬ 
portion  as  its  truth  is  recognized  it  may  be 
felt,  and  the  mode  of  utterance  be  affected 
accordingly.  Almost  every  one  can  be  elo¬ 
quent  when  stirred  by  strong  emotion,  and 
the  spontaneous  modulation  is  likely  to  be 
true.  Any  thought  then,  to  have  this  ea»v , 
unartificial,  and  effective  utterance  should  be 
one’s  own  possession,  and  not  a  borrowed 


one. 

I  have  no  aoubt  that  one  reason  why 
we  have  much  poor  preaching  is  because 
many  clergymen,  in  composing  their  sermons 
in  their  seclusion,  avail  themselves  of  others’ 
thoughts  rather  than  of  their  own.  This 
propensity  is  measurably  qualified  m  extem¬ 
pore,  or  rather,  impromptu  preaching,  but  even 
here  one’s  own  repertory  may  be  so  poor 
that  lie  is  obliged  to  reproduce  what  others 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


127 


have  said,  in  borrowed  words  or  stereotyped 
phrases,  without  having  fused  them  in  the 
alembic  of  his  own  mind,  and  given  them 
subjective  form,  and  hence  new  life,  making 
thus  the  human  mind  in  its  full  definition 
the  medium.  This  method  of  preparation 
mav  have  become  so  habitual  as  to  create 
a  distrust  in  the  value  of  the  preacher  s  own 
thoughts ;  and  in  consequence  his  sermons 
are  almost  helplessly  mechanical,  and  fail 
of  becoming  truly  spiritual  modes  of  rela¬ 
tion. 

This  propensity  may  have  been  created, 
or  fostered  by  the  mode  of  the  antece¬ 
dent  preparation,  by  the  defects  in  the  theo¬ 
logical  instruction.  If  this  has  consisted  in 
the  mere  offering  and  acceptance  of  cut  and 
dried  propositions,  coming  from  no  mat¬ 
ter  what  authority,  which  the  recipient  is 
expected  to  take  for  granted  and  reproduce 
as  he  can,  with  no  effort  to  appropriate 
them  in  thought— to  test,  to  see,  to  feel  their 
meaning  and  their  truth,  it  is  not  to  be  ex¬ 
pected  that  every  such  one  will  readily  break 
over  these  bounds,  and  tell  to  his  after  con¬ 
gregations,  only  what  he  knows  and  feels  to 


128 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


be  true.  In  this  way  a  faulty  mode  of  in¬ 
struction  degrades  the  function  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  ministry.  If  our  preachers  would  simply 
tell  what  they  know,  what  thoughts  have 
been  suggested  and  feelings  aroused  by  their 
own  response  to  God’s  love  in  Christ,  by  their 
contemplation  of  humanity  and  its  needs,  their 
sermons  would  not  fail  to  find  adequate  re- 
ponse. 

It  follows,  likewise  that  this  vivid  Chris¬ 
tian  experience,  this  love  of  Christ,  this  love 
of  man,  and  acquaintance  with  his  ethical 
and  religious  defects  and  wants,  must  in  dif¬ 
ferent  grades  affect  the  efficiency  of  the  min¬ 
ister  in  another  one  of  his  functions,  viz  :  the 
pastoral  care. 

The  helplessness  of  many  clergymen  in 
this  respect  is  something  mournful.  They  are 
ready,  in  various  decrees  of  readiness,  and  from 
differing  or  mixed  motives,  to  minister  to  the 
physical  wants  of  their  human  brethren,  the 
objects  of  their  own  pastoral  charge  in  partic¬ 
ular,  but  when  called  upon  to  minister  to 
mental  and  religious  needs,  to  deal  with  the 
disorders  of  the  soul,  they  often  draw  back 
with  an  inward  consciousness  of  inadequacy. 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


129 


They  hardly  apply  to  themselves,  as  it  might 
be  shown  they  have  a  right  to  do,  their  Lord’s 
promise,  that  it  shall  be  given  them  what  to 
speak.  They  forget  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
theirs.  But  the  Holy  Spirit  works  through 
human  active  agencies,  and  not  through  men 
as  passive  machines.  He  still  respects  the  na¬ 
tive  power,  does  not  overcome  it,  though  He 
may  stimulate  it  to  the  utmost  of  its  exercise. 
The  personal  equation,  here,  is  susceptible  of 
all  manner  of  degrees  ;  and  for  some  the  abil¬ 
ity  thus  to  minister  must  be  confined  to  a 
narrow  range.  Our  own  church  has  felt  this 
difficulty,  and  wisely  allows  the  troubled  soul 
to  go  beyond  its  own  pastor  for  relief.  Finely 
competent  confessors  are  as  rare  as  fine  preach¬ 
ers.  But  as  a  proper  culture  may  have  aided 
in  producing  these,  so  a  proper  culture  may 
aid  in  the  production  of  those,  and  enable  a 
greater  ability  than  is  usual  in  this  line  of 
pastoral  duty.  This  is  a  department  of  prep¬ 
aration  for  ministerial  work  too  much,  hith¬ 
erto,  neglected.  The  Roman  church  has  car¬ 
ried  it  to  an  extreme.  An  imitation  of  her 
method  is  not  to  be  advised.  A  critique  of  it 
might  be  made  to  show  that  it  is  based  upon  a 


130 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


wrong  theory,  and  that  its  results  are  to  be 
deprecated.  We,  in  our  church,  must,  for  this 
end,  start  a b  initio ,  and  think  out  the  method 
from  our  own  starting  point,  and  under  the 
limitations  of  our  own  theology,  which,  as  a 
unified  system,  is  not  identical  with  that  of 
the  Roman  church.  The  difference  between 
two  possible  methods  may  be  slightly  indica¬ 
ted  from  the  very  significance  of  the  names 
given  to  this  branch  of  theological  culture. 
With  the  Roman  church  it  is  “  Moral  Theol¬ 
ogy,”  i.  e.,  theology  so  far  as  it  is  determined 
by  the  received  ethic  of  that  church,  which 
can  be  shown  to  be  practically,  if  not  theoreti¬ 
cally,  a  mere  ethic  of  expediency,  which  has 
such  flexibility  that  it  effaces  at  times  the 
absolute  moral  distinctions.  M  ith  us  the 
name  is,  or  should  be  Theological  Ethics, 
i.  e.,  moral  distinctions  are  taken  to  be  abso¬ 
lute  and  immutable,  recognized  by  human  rea¬ 
son,  and  furnishing  ground  for  the  exhibition 
of  the  divine  justice.  And  the  inquiry  is, 
how  the  maxims  for  human  conduct  thence 
deducible,  are  affected  by  the  incoming  of 
Christian  doctrine,  by  the  revelation  of  God 
and  his  purposes  in  Christ,  in  consequence  of 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


131 


which  the  whole  life-plan  must  be  changed. 
New  maxims  spring  up,  changes  are  made  in 
the  order  and  rank  of  those  already  received, 
and  thus,  in  some  degree,  the  details  of  duty 
are  marked  out,  and  reasons  given  for  all 
this  modification. 

But  for  those  of  our  clergy  who  are  in  any 
degree  competent,  this  ministration  to  the  soul 
wants  of  the  troubled,  perplexed,  doubting  or 
despairing  ones  is  the  very  finest  part  of  the 
ministerial  office, — a  true  spiritual  mediation. 
What  wisdom  and  skill,  what  care  and  pa¬ 
tience  are  needed  to  lead  the  struggling  soul 
out  of  any  “  Slough  of  Despond,”  or  to  tear 
away  the  meshes  of  a  false  philosophy,  and 
enable  an  escape,  to  let  in  the  light  of  divine 
truth,  by  degrees,  into  the  darkness  of  doubt! 
When  one  is  successful  in  this,  there  becomes 
the  greatest  boon  that  one  human  being  can 
give  to  another,  and  it  arouses  in  the  recipient 
the  deepest  feeling  of  gratitude,  a  sense  of 
obligation  that  lasts  through  life.  This  reali¬ 
zation  of  the  pastoral  tie  is,  perhaps,  the  deep¬ 
est  and  most  enduring  personal  relation  ever 
existing  here  on  the  earth.  The  minister,  to 
be  successful  in  accomplishing  it,  must  not 


132 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


only  be  acutely  sympathetic  for  ordinary  men¬ 
tal  distress,  but  so  wise  as  to  enable  sympathy 
for  subtler  and  acuter  agony,  must  be  able  to 
see  symptoms  of  internal  disorder,  when  un¬ 
suspected  by  the  sufferer  himself.  He  must  be 
himself  strong  in  the  faith,  and  able  to  give  a 
reason  for  it,  not  by  cutting  off  inquiry  and 
doubt,  but  by  showing  that  the  doubt  leads 
no  whither,  or  into  more  impenetrable  dark¬ 
ness  ;  must  be  strong  in  his  love,  for  love  is 
contagious  in  proportion  to  its  strength,  and 
that  is  measured  by  its  capability  for  sacrifice. 
Christian  love  manifested  sometimes  wins  and 
cures,  when  all  other  remedies  fail,  and  one  is 
drawn  to  meet  it  by  a  compulsion  that  is 
divine. 

But  there  is  still  another  function  of  the 

Christian  ministry, — that  to  which  I  alluded  in 

my  last  lecture.  These  men  are  citizens  of  the 
* 

state,  as  well  as  ministers  of  the  church.  And 
inasmuch  as  no  change  of  moment,  or  great 
improvement  in  human  conditions,  can  be 
effected  but  by  concerted  effort,  or  a  wide¬ 
spread  consent,  these  men  cannot,  or  should 
not  withhold  themselves  from  co-operation 
with  their  fellow-citizens  in  any  aim  intended 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


133 


to  move  mankind  one  step  further  towards  the 
realization  of  its  brotherhood.  As  a  class,  the 
philanthropic  impulse  is  probably  as  stiong  in 
them,  if  not  stronger,  than  in  any  other, 
thou-h  it  is  often  held  back  by  conventional 

o 

restraints,  hy  an  iron-hound  consei\  atism,  or 
by  subtle  temptations  of  self-interest.  But 
normally  this  impulse  ought  to  be  stronger 
than  in  any  other  class,  because  the  aim  of 
their  office  goes  beyond  the  mere  temporal 
welfare  of  men,  and  respects  their  charac¬ 
ters,  as  determining  their  permanent  welfare. 
Hence,  more  from  this  class,  in  proportion  to 
its  numbers,  than  from  any  other,  take  the 
lead  in  all  efforts  after  social  reform.  The 
ultra-progressive  is  nurtured  here  as  well  as 
the  ultra-conservative.  Many,  indeed,  con¬ 
fine  themselves  to  their  own  pemlium,  to  the 
narrow  circle  of  their  priestly  and  pastoial 
relations,  as  though  they  had  no  ties  nor 
obligations  beyond,  and  some  strive  to  deepen 
the  line  of  separation  between  the  clergy  and 
the  laity,  and  exalt  themselves  into  a  caste , 
instead  of  gladly  effacing  it  when  they  can 
legitimately  do  so.  And  otheis,  fiom  simple 
distrust  in  their  own  power  to  influence  men, 


134 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


console  themselves  by  thinking  that  they  have 
no  call  of  duty  beyond  their  churchly  rela¬ 
tion.  They  resolve  to  do  what  is  incumbent 
* 

upon  them  in  this,  and  leave  to  God  to  take 
care  of  ulterior  results,  and  work  out  his 
purposes  upon  human  conditions. 

This  narrow  view,  thus  variously  held,  very 
often  characterize^  the  procedure  of  young 
men  just  beginning  the  ministerial  life.  This, 
their  self-imposed  limitation,  may  come,  indeed, 
from  diffidence,  and  be  confirmed  by  habit, 
but  if  so,  it  can  be  cured.  But  it  may  come 
from  a  theory  of  their  office — shallow,  and  not 
fully  honoring  God  and  his  methods  of  dealing 
with  his  creatures ;  a  theory  which  implies 
that  the  divine  presence  and  the  divine 
efficiency  are  confined  to  the  circle  and  the 
prescribed  rites  of  the  church  alone,  and  this 
“  church  ”  sometimes  thought  in  a  very  narrow 
definition.  For  if,  indeed,  the  naive  Christian 
mind,  unbiassed,  rejects  a  notion  so  narrow, 
and  feels,  as  a  corollary  from  the  divine  love 
itself,  that  no  human  beings  can  be  disregarded 
in  the  divine  mind,  that  God’s  plan  respects 
the  human  race  as  such,  and  that  he  is  urging 
a  universal  movement,  that  Christianity  is 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


i  o  r 

loO 

only  a  special  movement  as  means  towards  a 
universal  one  ;  if  religion  is  thought  to  belong 
to  human  nature  itself,  and  cannot  be  eradi¬ 
cated  therefrom,  if  its  pre-suppositions  are 
never  absent  as  determining  human  activity, — 
then,  since  God  works  by  known  or  providen¬ 
tial  means,  as  well  as  through  mystical  influ¬ 
ences  which  human  intelligence  cannot  follow, 
it  is  incumbent  upon  even  his  selected  ones 
who  constitute  the  “  Ecclesia”  to  study  this 
providential  movement,  and  throw  themselves 
into  the  current  which  God  is  urging  to  his  own 
end.  And  shall  the  guardians  and  guides  of 
the  Christian  people  hold  themselves  back 
from  this?  Shall  they  blind  themselves  to 
these  transcendent  relations  ?  It  would  seem 
that  the  privilege  and  the  duty  was  especially 
theirs,  not  only  to  co-operate  with  any  con¬ 
certed  effort  for  the  improvement  of  human 
conditions,  not  only  to  acquiesce  in  and  further 
any  effort  initiated  beyond  themselves,  or  be- 
vond  even  the  church, — but,  if  they  are  indeed 
wiser,  and  have  a  wider  outlook  and  more  per¬ 
manent  aims,  to  initiate  such  effort  and  to 
draw  others  into  it,  rather  than  to  be  them¬ 
selves  drawn  into  efforts  less  profoundly 


136 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


meditated.  But  just  here  the  knowledge  of 
many  of  our  clergy  is  deficient.  They  know 
so  little  beyond  their  particular  line  of  activity, 
that  they  stand  passive  and  irresolute  amid 
the  movements  stirring  around  them.  They 
have  accepted  their  propositional  theology,  but 
know  nothing  or  little  of  social  facts,  or 
political  situations  and  indications ;  know 
little  of  science — and  some  even  foolishly 
decry  it — not  seeing  that  science  is  the  pur¬ 
veyor  to  theology,  and  assists  it  in  removing  its 
own  unhealthy  growths ;  and  some  even  decry 
philosophy  itself,  not  knowing  that  they  have 
already  accepted  in  trust  some  philosophy,  and 
that  a  philosophy  is  implicit  in  all  their  theo¬ 
logical  attainments.  They  need  a  larger  culture. 
If  the  clergy  are  to  hold  their  own  in  influencing 
human  action,  if  they  are  to  entitle  themselves 
to  respect  in  the  coming  times,  our  theological 
curricula  must  be  greatly  enlarged  ;  our  semi¬ 
naries  must  be  something  more  than  mills 
turning  out  products  of  a  monotonous  same¬ 
ness, — rather,  products  of  developed  individu¬ 
alities,  and  able,  as  any  others  whatever,  to 
cope  with  the  practical  questions  becoming 
yearly  more  urgent. 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


137 


We,  in  our  own  church,  are  so  intensely 
conservative,  that  the  commoner  tendency  is 
to  linger  behind  in  the  onward  progress.  But 
the  need,  growing  more  manifest,  will  meet 
its  supply  in  due  time.  They  who  shall  urge  a 
change  in  our  methods  will  meet  with  oppo- 
sition.  There  is  much  debris  to  remove.  We 
older  ones  feel  ourselves  entangled  in  it,  hut, 
since  near  our  end,  our  energy  is  not  sufficient. 
The  coming  generation,  growing  up  with  the 
sense  of  this  need,  as  we  did  not,  will  venture 
farther  than  we  have  done,  beyond  the  track 
so  long  beaten  hard.  But  the  old  conservative 
inertia  still  weighs  upon  the  young  mind  to 
keep  it  in  the  ruts,  and  our  theological  schools 
only  slowly  yield  to  the  outer  pressure. 

The  notion  so  long  held,  and  still  surviving, 
that  in  the  early  Christian  days  the  Holy  Spirit 
came  once  for  all,  and  enlightened  to  the  full 
the  existing  generation,  which  created  a  clc- 
positum  of  faith  to  he  handed  on  through  all 
time,  unchangeable  and  needing  no  develop¬ 
ment,  is  slowly  giving  way  before  the  pro¬ 
founder  notion  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  a  per¬ 
ennial  possession  ;  and  that  lie  is  ours  in  every 
sense  that  he  was  theirs ;  that  he  has  been  busy 


138 


MENS  CHRIST I. 


in  the  intervening  time,  guiding  the  thread 
of  human  history,  in  its  spiritual  and  true 
advance,  and  that  we,  in  our  own  generation, 
are  wiser  than  any  one  that  has  preceded  us, 
since  that  one  that  had  inspired  men  for 
referees; —  a  thesis  that  can  have  ample  specu¬ 
lative,  historical,  scriptural  vindication,  but 
whose  antithesis  dies  hard. 

The  very  doubts,  which  spring  more  and 
more  abundantly  as  the  years  pass,  furnish 
occasion  for  the  victories  of  faith,  and  should 
never  be  shunned  or  dogmatically  lepiessed. 
We  grow  wiser  only  through  this  dialectic. 
The  victory  over  a  doubt  is  a  new  illuminating 
addidamentum  to  the  Truth  itself.  Till  the 
last  the  forms  of  error  will  grow  more  subtle, 
and  till  the  last  the  wisdom  and  the  skill  to 
expose  and  vanquish  them  need  to  grow  and 

will  grow  more  subtle. 

Who,  but  the  ministers,  in  the  Church  of 
Christ,  ought  to  be  the  leaders,  and  the 
trusted  ones,  upholding  the  faith  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  body,  amid  assaults  whose  severity  we 
dream  not  of  now?  “When  the  Son  of  Man 
cometh  will  he  find  faith  on  the  earth  ?  ”  He 
will  himself  relieve  the  burden  then,  and  put 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


o 


an  end  to  the  trial.  And  the  ministers  of  his 
church  ought  to  be  the  ones  to  say  :  “We  have 
kept  these  souls  true  and  steady.  Here  are 
our  ten  talents.” 


LECTURE  V, 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  “A  NATURE  IN  GOD 


55 


Philosophers,  as  poets  of  the  first  order, 
are  born,  not  made.  That  which  distin¬ 
guishes  them  may  be  called  a  mental  instinct , 
— an  imperious  intellectual  demand  for 
unity  and  self-coherence  in  all  knowledge. 
An  hiatus,  or  a  problem  of  difficult  solu¬ 
tion  is  an  irritating  spur  which  urges  towards 
the  filling  up  of  the  one,  or  the  satisfying 
settlement  of  the  other.  The  entirety  of 
knowledge  must  be  woven  into  an  harmonious 
whole,  the  immanent  relations  of  all  whose 
elements  are  clearly  seen,  or  at  least  divined, 
and  hence  the  struggle  after  clear  expression. 
In  the  philosophic  mind  the  principle  or 
category  of  causality,  which  rules  all  thought- 
movement,  is  as  manifest  as  it  is  in  the 
scientific  mind.  The  difference  is  that  the 
latter,  as  purely  such,  deals  with  only  par¬ 
tial  material.  The  craving  for  a  unified  sys¬ 
tem  is  not  so  strong,  but  that  it  often  wil¬ 
fully  shuts  its  eyes  to  other  knowledge,  which 


140 


141 


“a  mature  in  god." 

too  must  be  incorporated  for  the  lull  under¬ 
standing  of  its  own.  When  science  extends  its 
view  and  takes  in  the  entire  field,  it  is 
obliged  to  become  philosophic.  Here,  in  this 
whole  round  or  scope  of  knowledge,  nothing 
is  unimportant.  In  the  endeavor,  then,  to 
weave  into  one  piece,  to  unify  all  fact,  all 
consciousness,  all  movement  or  change,  these 
must  be  traced  back  to  some  antecedent 
origin  or  cause,  which  must  account  for 
their  existence,  their  mutual  relations,  and 
their  changing  relations,  or  development. 
Something  in  the  First  Principle  is  not  yet 
apprehended  if  any  fact,  or  phase  of  con¬ 
sciousness  refuses  to  march  into  line  with 
the  rest.  No  problem  must  be  slurred  over  ; 
yet  the  temptation  to  do  this  is  strong. 
Even  the  most  encyclopedic  minds  find  them¬ 
selves  obliged  to  neglect  something,  or  wil¬ 
fully  do  it,  seduced  by  the  charm  of  some 
solution  which  seems  in  other  respects  to 
satisfy.  And  just  the  perception  of  this  causes 
others  to  reconsider  the  problem,  and  thus 
philosophy  takes  its  advance.  Some  fresher 
intellect  broods  again  OATer  the  dark  spots, 
with  a  sublime  discontent.  It  is  a  pity  that 


142 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


it  often  expresses  itself  too  soon,  and  has  after¬ 
wards  to  undo  its  former  work.  It  is  a  pit}7 
that  the  impulse  to  rush  into  publication  in  the 
earlier  periods  of  the  thought-history  could 
not  have  been  restrained  ;  or,  at  least,  that 
the  expression  could  not  have  been  kept  for 
a  longer  period,  simply  for  the  private  con¬ 
venience.  We  see  this  illustrated  in  the  his¬ 
tory  of  many  of  our  philosophers.  Schelling 
rushed  into  print  early  in  life,  and  had  after¬ 
wards  to  undo  much  of  his  former  work. 
Even  Fichte’s  thought  can  only  be  rightly 
apprehended  in  his  later  writings.  And 
Hegel’s  was  a  constant  growth, — though,  in 
his  case,  after  a  satisfying  centre,  or  method, 
was  obtained,  there  was  little  afterwards  to 
be  undone ;  but  even  he  neglected  some 
problems,  or  probed  them  not  profoundly 
enough  to  win  satisfaction  and  compel  ad¬ 
herence.  At  the  very  best,  in  our  conven¬ 
tional,  cultured  life,  the  desire  for  reputation, 
or  even  the  purer  craving  for  recognition, 
becomes  a  bias,  more  or  less  strong,  to  de¬ 
flect  and  trouble  the  pure  thinking. 

I  have  been  led  to  these  remarks  by  hav¬ 
ing  looked  somewhat  into  the  thouglit-sys- 


143 


“a  nature  in  god.” 

tem  of  Jacob  Boehme,  as  interpreted  by 
Dr.  Martensen.  Here  we  have  a  native  born 
philosopher,  with  few  advantages  of  educa¬ 
tion  and  culture,  in  whose  mind  the  great 
problems  of  knowledge  and  existence  were 
seething  and  surging,  and  whose  insights 
were  endeavoring  to  crystallize  into  shape 
and  symmetry.  For  lack  of  mastery  over 
the  means  of  expression,  such  as  have  become 
familiar  to  all  cultured  men,  he  was  obliged 
to  invent  a  technique  of  his  own.  His  thoughts 
are  so  couched  in  symbols,  that  on  this  ac¬ 
count  chiefly,  as  is  probable,  he  is  usually 
spoken  of  as  a  mystic.  Not  referring  here 
to  another  and  profounder  definition  of  this 
word,  I  may  say  that  his  constant  use  of 
symbolic  expressions  shows  rather  the  poetic 
attitude,  which  too,  in  a  different  way,  seeks 
to  express  and  illustrate  the  underlying  har¬ 
mony.  But  his  thought  is  that  of  a  philos¬ 
opher,  who,  without  acquaintance  with  former 
systems,  or  familiarity  with  solutions  already 
given,  and  unused  to  customary  modes  of 
expression,  found  himself  face  to  face  with 
these  great  problems.  Courageously  he  chased 
up  all  fact,  all  doctrine  to  its  antecedent 


144 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


source  or  possibility,  and  would  not  lea\e 
anything  neglected.  In  his  mind  there  was 
no  debris,  left  by  former  systems,  to  be  cast 
out.  Thus  his  mental  movement  was  unso¬ 
phisticated  and  comparatively  pure,  and  he 
dealt  with  his  problems  at  first  hand,  and 
with  the  least  conceivable  mental  bias.  He 
had  not  the  advantage,  which  sometimes 
becomes  a  disadvantage,  of  acquaintance  with 
the  previous  tentatives  of  human  thought, 
and  in  consequence  of  this  made  himself 
liable  to  criticism.  But  the  naive  utteianees 
of  one  who  had  such  marvelous  insights, 
such  honest  mental  requirement  of  truth, 
make  him  worthy  of  study.  Some  precious 
riches  are  to  be  brought  away  fiom  this 
mine.  What  foregone  bias  there  was  came 
from  his  education  in  the  Christian  Church, 
whose  doctrines  he  took  for  granted  must  be 
true,  and  he  sought  to  reconcile  them  with 
the  absolute  truth,  or  rather  to  bring  out 
their  meaning  as  expressions  of  the  same. 
But,  indeed,  no  one  reared  in  Christian 
countries  can  escape  this  bias.  Nor  can 
any  one  in  countries  not  Christian  escape 
a  similar  bias.  The  received  religion  has 


“  A  NATURE  IN  GOD. 


145 

entered  into  the  mind  before  the  life 
of  thought  begins.  And  even  where  no 
such  objective  influence  exists,  or  exists 
in  least  possible  degree,  the  mind  itself,  be¬ 
fore  the  philosophic  impulse  begins  to  stir, 
has  already  formed  and  acted  upon  its  nat¬ 
ural  religion.  And  this  seeming  disadvantage 
of  a  previous  mental  bias,  in  the  search  for 
truth  may  turn  out  to  be  an  advantage. 
The  bias  is  native  born,  and  may  be  sophis¬ 
ticated  by  an  imperfect  religion,  or  corrected 
by  one  which  is  perfect  and  true.  If  true, 
it  will  coalesce  more  readily  with  the  religion 
which  is  implicit  in  the  structure  of  the 
human  mind  itself. 

Boehme  did  not  rest  till  he  had  vindicated 
the  truth  of  Christian  doctrine  to  his  satisfac¬ 
tion. 

It  is  no  part  of  my  purpose  to  treat  of 
Boehme’s  philosophy  in  general,  but  only  to 
notice  that  his  thinking  brought  linn  face  to 
face  with  a  question  which  has  troubled  the 
philosophers  and  theologians  all  along,  and 
which  for  himself  he  solved;  reaching  the 
conclusion,  that  there  is  in  and  for  the  Eter¬ 
nal  First  Principle,  a  Nature.  Not  to  mention 


146 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


that,  in  forms  clear  or  obscure,  this  conception 
may  be  found  in  all  the  previous  ages,  and  is 
notably  present  in  the  Christian  Scriptures, — 
in  Boehme’s  mind  it  was  subjected  to  a  pro¬ 
found  speculative  analysis.  His  thought  has 
been  availed  of  hy  subsequent  writers,  notably 
by  Oetinger,  by  the  Roman  Catholic  philoso¬ 
pher,  Baader,  by  Schelling,  Rothe  and  Marten- 
sen.  The  coincidence  of  these  with  Boehme 
is  great,  if  not  strict,  except  in  the  case  of 
Schelling  ;  whose  speculation  allies  itself  read¬ 
ily  with  a  semi-pantheistic  form  of  doctrine,  a 
kind  of  philosophic  Sabellianism,  which  may 
have  its  own  critique.* 

In  this  scheme  creation  is  a  metaphysical 
necessity  in  and  for  the  Divine  Being,  is  that 
whereby  he  reaches  true  personality,  and  other 
personality  becomes  possible.  Hence  a  deter¬ 
mined  universe  is  as  eternal  as  the  pure  spirit- 
ground, — i.  e.,  thought  and  energy. 

In  the  other  scheme,  which  Boehme  im¬ 
plies,  though  his  utterances  are  sometimes 
ambiguous,  and  in  which  the  other  writers  I 
have  named  agree,  creation  is  a  free  activity. 
The  First  Principle  is  complete  in  itself,  and 

*This  may  be  found,  in  brief  form,  in  appendix  A,  of  the  first  volume  of 
my  work,  “Christian  Doctrine  Harmonized.” 


“  A  NATURE  IN  GOD. 


147 


5  J 


under  no  physical  or  metaphysical  necessity  to 
create.  What  may  he  predicated  is  a  moral 
necessity,  which  however  is  only  rightly 
thought  as  love,  self-consistent,  whose  idea 
evaporates  if  freedom  is  denied.  It  presup¬ 
poses  an  ideal  end,  and  the  impulse  to  find 
reciprocation.  Could  all  things  be  comprised 
in  a  physical  or  logical  nexus ,  love  and  free¬ 
dom  would  have  been  impossible  as  truths,  or 
even  as  ideas.  Their  presence  in  the  human 
consciousness,  if  it  could  be,  would  be  the 
delusion  of  delusions.  They  would  be  abso¬ 
lutely  uncaused.  But  indeed  they  could  not 

V 

he  found  there. 

But  the  problem  is,  how —this  determined 
universe  being  given,  this  peopled  space,  these 
masses,  with  their  laws  and  motions,  the  spir¬ 
itual  characteristics  of  the  human  beings  on 
this  planet,  human  history  and  development, 
the  glimpses  of  an  end  and  aim,  all  facts  and 
phases  of  consciousness  whatever,  —  how  to 
account  for  it  as  thus  determined ;  whether 
this  can  he  done  by  assuming  as  its  origin 
and  motive  power  a  merely  or  purely  spirit¬ 
ual  principle.  The  attempt  so  to  do  has  met 
with  objection  enough,  and  just  here  it  is  that 


148 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


materialism  possesses  what  strength  it  has.  It 
contends  that  we  cannot  explain  material  ex¬ 
istence  and  movement  from  merely  spiritual 
grounds.  In  this  the  materialists  are  as  firm 
as  their  opponents  are,  who  contend  that  spir¬ 
itual  truths  and  results  cannot  be  explained 
from  mere  physical  antecedents.  The  one 
position  seems  as  impregnable  as  the  other. 
The  failure  of  this  last  endeavor  has  become 
manifest,  and  is  acknowledged  ;  while  many 
advocates  of  the  former  contention,  while 
right  in  their  negation,  have  no  positive 
affirmation  to  supply  instead,  except  the  old 
formula  of  creation  out  of  nothing ,  which, 
when  scrutinized,  proves  to  have  no  meaning, 
and  is  simply  a  confession  of  mental  impo¬ 
tence.  Moreover  the  Christian  Scriptures 
authorize  the  use  of  no  such  formula.  On 
the  contrary,  their  authors  seem  by  their  care¬ 
fulness  in  the  use  of  words,  expressly  to  guard 
against  it. 

The  need  of  reconciliation  here  was  appar- 
rent  to  the  unsophisticated  mind  of  Boehme, 
and  however  unclear  his  expressions  upon 
other  doctrines,  just  here  his  virgin  thought 
is  found  to  have  confirmation  in  that  of  some 


“  A  NATURE  IN  GOD. 


149 


}  1 


who  went  before,  and  has  commended  itself 
to  the  eminent  philosophic  theologians  whom 
I  have  named  above.  But  this  doctrine,  while 
I  acknowledge  a  valid  ground  for  it,  has  not 
been  expressed  in  a  manner  so  satisfying  to 
me,  as  to  lift  it  above  criticism.  Its  latest 
advocate  and  interpreter,  Dr.  Martensen,  may 
be  taken  to  have  possessed  whatever  truth 
may  have  been  precipitated  by  the  thinking 
of  his  predecessors. 

Just  here  it  is  necessary  at  once  to  remove 
a  misconception,  and  Martensen  says  rightly: 
“  When  Nature  is  affirmed  in  God  it  is  in 
comparison  with  what  we  call  nature,  some¬ 
thing  infinitely  subtle  and  supermaterial —is 
not  matter  at  all,  but  rather  a  source  for 
matter,  a  plenitude  of  living  forces  and  ener¬ 
gies.”  This  full  sentence  contains,  in  my  view, 

o 

both  truth  and  error, — or,  at  least,  is  inade- 
quately  expressed  ;  and,  without  treating  of 
the  matter  exhaustively,  I  shall  accomplish 
my  immediate  purpose,  by  criticising  the 
latter  and  elaborating  the  former. 

The  misconception  to  which  he  alludes  is 
commonplace  enough.  The  doctrine  of  a 
Nature  in  God  is  objected  to  as  if  it  affirmed 


150 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


an  eternal  universe,  a  material  entity  outside 
of  God,  which  thus  denies  the  old  formula, 
namely,  a  “  something  out  of  nothing.”  This  it 
does,  indeed,  but  it  does  not  affirm  an  eternal 
universe,  for  a  universe  means  something 
determined,  and  of  which  predications  may 
be  made.  The  doctrine  does  not  affirm  this, 
but  declares  the  possibility  of  this.  It  would 
trace  back  the  known  universe,  so  far  as  it  has 
spiritual  characteristics  to  its  ground  in  the 
absolute  spirit,  but  since  the  universe  is  also 
material,  it  would  discover  the  ground  or  pos¬ 
sibility  of  this  also.  We  owe  to  the  deter¬ 
mined  universe  the  notion  or  idea  of  the 
absolute  spirit  ;  and  we  owe  to  it,  likewise, 
the  discovery  of  something  that  must  be  syn¬ 
thesized  by  spirit  to  become  the  known  uni¬ 
verse.  In  this  pure  ground  there  must  be  the 
absence  of  all  determinations,  for  if  any  exist, 
it  is  identified  at  once  with  the  known  uni¬ 
verse,  and  the  universe  appears  as  eternal. 
Thus  then,  we  must  abstract  whatever  is 
known  of  the  universe,  but  we  cannot  abstract 
that  which  has  received  the  determinations, 
which  still  remains  for  pure  thought.  The 
only  thing  that  can  be  said  about  it  is  that  it 


151 


“a  nature  in  god. 

is  that  which  synthesized  by  spirit  becomes 
the  universe.  We  do  not  know  the  absolute 
ground  of  spirit,  until  it  breaks  into  the  dis¬ 
tinctions  of  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit 
i.  e.,  is  determined  ;  but  we  assume  it,  or  are 
obliged  to  think  it,  nevertheless.  But,  as  the 
known  universe  is  in  movement  and  change, 
and  undergoes  development,  there  must  be 
in  the  pure  ground  the  possibility  of  such 
movement.  But  all  development  occurs  only 
when  the  pure  ground  is  synthesized  by  spirit, 
for  its  movement  always  betrays  the  idea,  and 
thus  thought  and  energy  are  its  spiritual  pie- 
suppositions. 

Here,  now,  may  come  in  my  critique  of 
Martensen.  He  says  :  kk  This  Nature  is  not 
matter,  but  rather  a  source  for  matter.”  So 
far  right,  but  he  adds  !  “  a  plenitude  of  11a  ing 
forces  and  energies.”  Here  now  I  find  myself 
bewildered.  “Forces.”  What  are  forces ,  but 
energy  dealing  with  existing  mateiial,  and 
causing  movements  for  the  realization  of  an 
idea.  And  why  add  “  energies,”  unless  to 
amplify  the  notion  of  forces.  These,  idea, 
“thought,”  “  abstract  energy,”  belong  to  spirit 
and  have  their  ground  in  that.  Energy  be- 


152 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


comes  u  force,”  only  by  virtue  of  this  very 

i  t  i 

“  Nature,”  which  is  hypothecated.  “  Forces,” 
can  be  understood  and  imagined.  If  there 
were  anything  in  this  “  Nature  ”  which  could 
be  understood  and  imagined,  it  would  not  be 
undetermined.  We  have  not  clearly  posited 
it  until,  haying  removed  all  possibility  for 
understanding  and  imagination,  it  still  re¬ 
mains  for  pure  thought  and  is  a  requirement 
of  reason,  for  the  moment  spirit  enters  it,  it 
becomes  the  object  of  knowledge.  The  prin¬ 
ciple  of  causality  still  prevails  as  the  law  of 
the  reason  and  the  fundamental  category  for 
thinking ;  and  the  ground  for  the  material 
required  for  the  exhibition  of  force  is  just  as 
necessary  and  imperious  a  requirement  for 
thinking  as  the  ground  for  the  spiritual, 
seeing  that  all  force  makes  thought  real  or 
manifests  thought.  The  word  “  force,”  as  an 
abstract  term  may  then  be  conveniently  dis¬ 
carded.  “Forces”  are  the  modes  of  the 
Divine  Energy, Tn  their  movement  and  play, 
in  their  contests  and  equilibria ,  accomplishing 
concrete  existence  and  change. 

This  “  Nature  ”  in  God  means,  then,  the 
possibility  of  the  material.  From  pure  spirit 


u 


A  NATURE  IN  GOD 


O 

oo 


alone  you  can  never  deduce  the  material.  In 
the  attempt  to  do  so  you  simply  postulate 
energy  and  thought  on  the  one  side,  and  an 
intelligible  result  in  the  other,  with  no  copula, 
no  connection,  no  affirmation,  nothing  that 
the  mind  can  think,  between  them. 

What  this  felt,  seen,  perceived,  conceived 
matter  is  or  was  in  its  simplest  or  primal  form, 
science  has  not  shown  us,  and  will  never 
show  us.  It  can  simply  carry  us  back  by  its 
analysis  to  the  point  where  we  must  part  with 
all  exercise  of  understanding  and  imagination, 
and  there  it  leaves  us.  The  pure  thought- 
faculty,  in  its  demand  for  co-ordination,  steps 
in  here  and  rescues  the  residuum ,  and  that 
which  is  in  itself  barren,  becomes  fruitful 
when  synthesized  by  spirit.  The  Christian 
Scriptures  have  a  name  for  this  residuum ,  and 
call  it  the  “  Divine  Doxa.”  Thus  the  last 
result  of  scientific  painstaking  and  of  philo¬ 
sophic  thought  succeeding,  has  been  antici¬ 
pated  in  the  Christian  Scriptures. 

The  notion  of  the  Divine  Doxa  has  been 
degraded  by  making  it  something  dependent 
upon  human  subjective  estimation,  or  at  least 
the  foresight  of  this  in  the  divine  mind. 


154 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


That  is,  it  is  nothing  real,  but  only  some¬ 
thing  that  emerges  when  the  real  comes  to 
be.  If,  in  this  regard  it  is  something  eternal, 
then  transcendent  existence  and  intelligence 
outside  of  God  must  be  thought  as  eternal, 
and  creation  appears  as  a  necessary  thing ; 
in  which  case,  if  development  be  needful, 
we  have  the  result  of  development  without 
its  pre-conditions.  We  have  either  a  stagnant 
plenum  already  reached,  or  a  cyclical  move¬ 
ment.  The  very  notion  of  a  free  creation 
implies  an  ideal  end  in  the  divine  mind, 
and  therefore  a  beginning. 

The  Christian  Scriptures  do  not  speak  of 
the  Divine  Doxa  in  terms  implying  spiritual 
categories.  It  is  not  anything  needful  for 
the  definition  of  pure  spirit,  but,  indeed, 
something  to  make  the  activity  of  the  con¬ 
crete  spirit  beyond  itself  possible.  It  is 
spoken  of  rather  by  physical  symbols  or 
analogies.  Nay,  it  almost  undergoes  identi¬ 
fication  with  the  pure  light ,  and  as  that  in 
which  no  darkness  or  contrast  exists.  Thus, 
it  has  as  yet  no  interior  contrast,  but  is 
itself  a  contrast  to  the  pure  spirit.* 

*  “  But,  not  less  wonderful  are  certain  luminous  spots  or  patches,  which 
discover  themselves  only  by  the  Telescope,  and  appear  to  the  naked  eye  like 


155 


“A  nature  in  god." 

Boehme  had  this  insight,  that  something 
must  be  posited  in  the  First  Principle  which 
can  make  possible  a  determined  universe, 
and  this  shaped  itself  to  him  in  the  form 
of  a  contrast ;  and  he  affirms  that  the  ever-exist- 

small  fixed,  stars,  but  in  reality  are  nothing  else  but  the  Light  coming  from 
an  extraordinary  great  space  in  the  ether  ;  through  which  a  lucid  medium  is 
diffused,  that  shines  with  its  own  proper  Luster.  This  seems  fully  to  recon¬ 
cile  that  Difficulty  which  some  have  moved  against  the  Description  Moses 
gives  of  the  creation,  alleging  that  Light  could  not  be  created  without 
the  Sun.  But  in  the  following  instances  the  contrary  is  manifest  ;  for  some 
of  these  bright  spots  discover  no  sign  of  a  star  in  the  middle  of  them  ;  and 
the  irregular  form  of  those  that  have  shows  them  not  to  proceed  from  the 
Illumination  of  a  Central  Body,  since  they  have  no  annual  parallax.  They 
cannot  fail  to  occupy  spaces  immensely  great,  and  perhaps  not  less  than  our 
whole  Solar  System.'  In  all  these  so  vast  spaces  it  should  seem  that  there  is  a 
perpetual  uninterrupted  Day,  which  may  furnish  matter  for  speculation  as 
well  to  the  curious  Naturalist,  as  to  the  Astronomer.”— Edmund  Halley. 
Philosophical  Transactions.  Vol.  29 ,  p.  392. 

Mr.  Lockyer,  in  quoting  the  above,  remarks  that  Maupertius  as  well  as 
Halley  laid  great  stress  upon  the  possible  luminosity  of  sparse  masses  of  mat¬ 
ter  in  space. 

Aproi  os  to  this,  I  have  read  somewhere  an  account  of  certain  experi¬ 
ments  which  went  to  show,  that  matter,  when  extremely  attenuated,  became 
self-luminous  ;  but  I  have  not  seen  since  any  repetition,  or  authentication  of 
the  same. 

All  this  falls  in  with  my  a  priori  suggestion  just  made,  that  Light  was  the 
first  determination  of  the  Divine  Doxa,  hence  the  primal  form  of  its  manifest 
ation.  in  which  were  the  tokens  of  created  existence.  Thus  this  w  ord,  light 
has  both  subjective  and  objective  significance.  Also  that  the  next  subse¬ 
quent  determination  was  the  diremption  of  this  light  into  the  clear  and 
the  obscure,  in  which  is  contrast  and  relation,  and  the  possibility  of  all 
future  relations.  Science  has  found  the  cosmic  dust,  and  may  have  found 
the  contrasted  light.  But  by  what  process  the  latter  becomes  the  former,  it 
does  not  and  cannot  tell  us.  Only  when  synthesized  by  spirit,  determined  by 
thought  and  pure  energy,  does  it  come  within  the  domain  of  knowledge.  W  e 
may  speculate  here,  and  ask  whether  the  obscure  does  not  come  from  the  re¬ 
tardation  or  limitation  of  motion  rather  than  by  its  acceleration.  1  rom 
which  it  would  seem  to  follow  that  the  Divine  Doxa  itself  was  not  rest,  but 
infinite  motion.  Here,  again,  we  have  in  the  physical  realm  the  dialectic, 
which  appears  as  the  law  of  creative  activity,  as  well  as  of  the  thought- 
movement. 

Thoughts  like  these,  or  visions  of  all  this,  seem  to  have  been  in  the  minds 
of  the  Scripture  writers,  as  they  are  dimly  and  incoherently  in  ours.  We  ac¬ 
knowledge  the  inadequacy  of  language  to  express  them,  and  they  seem  to 
have  felt  the  same  difficulty. 


156 


MENS  CIIRISTI. 


ing  contrast  in  the  known  universe,  between 
the  spiritual  and  the  material,  obtains  in  the 
Primum  itself.  But  Boehme  falls  into  an 
error,  or  at  least  renders  himself  liable  to  a 
misconception,  by  confusing  the  notion  of 
contrast  with  that  of  contradiction,  and  thus 
his  expression  sometimes  seems  to  lay  a 
basis  for  the  existence  of  e\  il  as  necessary . 
On  this  account  he  has  been  accused  of 
Maniclieeism.  This  vibration  between  the  true 
and  false  view  of  contrast  confuses  him,  and 
makes  the  expression  of  his  thought  unclear. 
Martensen  vindicates  him,  and  probably  justly, 
from  the  charge  of  consciously  holding  the 
necessity  of  evil,  with  which  indeed  other 
parts  of  his  works  are  inconsistent. 

Contradiction  is  that  which  is  repugnant 
to  the  essence  of  a  thing,  while  contrast  is 
a  necessary  difference  which  emerges  from 
that  idea  or  essence  itself.  Thus  beneficence 
and  severity  in  the  Ruler  of  mankind  are 
contrasts,  yet  they  are  both  forms  of  the 
same  thing,  the  divine  love  taking  one  shape 
or  another,  according  as  the  recipient  is 
loving  or  unloving.  But  moral  good  and 
evil  are  contradictory,  for  if  the  latter  be 


157 


“a  nature  in  god." 

thought  as  necessary,  the  conception  of  it 
as  violation  of  the  absolute  law  obtaining 
in  the  structure  of  the  universe  is  lost. 
In  the  history  of  human  thinking  the  temp¬ 
tation  has  been  very  great  to  regard  evil 
as  part  of  a  necessary  process,  in  which 
evil  is  the  dialectic,  and  thus  that  it  and 
good  are  mere  contrasts.  The  willingness  to 
abide  in  such  a  solution  betrays  a  weakness 
in  many  philosophers,  and  shows  that  the 
gasping  endeavor  after  a  unity,  in  sheer 
weariness,  has  allowed  itself  to  be  content 
with  a  premature  and  too  easy  a  solution. 
It  is  humiliating,  indeed,  to  find  that  there 
is  one  dark  abyss,  which  the  human  mind 
has  not,  as  yet,  light  enough  to  illumine, 
and  moral  evil  is  that  abyss.  Its  possibility, 
its  ideal  attractiveness,  may  be  admitted  as 
a  requirement  for  spiritual  development, 
but  its  actuality  can  by  no  means  be  ad¬ 
mitted  as  necessary.  The  whole  edifice  of  spir¬ 
itual  thought,  thereby  undergoes  a  bouleverse- 
ment.  We  hold  then  that  in  the  First  Prin¬ 
ciple  there  is  contrast,  but  no  contradiction, 
and  that  this  contrast  is  furnished  by  the 
Divine  Doxa. 


158 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


This  doctrine  of  a  “  Nature  in  God”  does 
not  appear  in  Boehme  or  Martensen  in  pre¬ 
cisely  the  form  in  which  I  have  presented  it.* 
They  both  acknowledge  that,  quite  independ¬ 
ent  of  the  created  world,  there  is  an  internal 
and  external  phenomenal  manifestation  in 
God  himself —but  in  using  this  word  “  phe¬ 
nomenal  ”  there  is  carried  into  the  notion  of 
the  Divine  Doxa,  determinations,  derived  from 
human  experience  and  analogies,  and  an  ap¬ 
peal  is  made  to  imagination.  This  wonderful 
faculty  of  the  human  mind  leaps  into  activity 
at  the  slightest  hint,  but  as  it  has  no  ma¬ 
terial  to  deal  with  here,  any  results  it  may 
reach  and  enjoy  are  not  trustworthy  for 
pure  thought.  Also  Martensen  throws  out 
the  conjecture  whether  angelic  existence  does 
not  belong  to  this  sphere,  before  the  deter¬ 
minations  which  constitute  the  known  uni¬ 
verse  came  to  be,  and  that  angels  communi¬ 
cate  with  each  other,  and  have  communion 

*  I  may  be  allowed  to  say  that  my  own  thought  upon  these  questions  has 
been  entirely  independent,  and  that  the  conclusions  I  have  reached  were 
before  I  had'read  anything  of  Jacob  Boehme,  or  Martensen’ s  critique  of  his 
scheme  Those  who  are  familiar  with  these  latter  will  perceive  that  there 
are  points  of  agreement,  and  also  points  of  entire  disagreement.  I  cannot 
in  this  lecture  explicate  these  points,  but  must  confine  myself  to  the  isolated 
topic  which  is  its  title,  and  this,  too,  cannot  be  treated  in  an  exhaustive 
manner.  It  receives  fuller  treatment  in  the  text,  and  in  one  of  the  append¬ 
ices  of  the  first  volume  of  my  work  “  Christian  Doctrine  Harmonized.” 


“A  nature  in  god. 


159 


with  God  through  organs  or  media,  which 
imply  determinations  of  the  Divine  Doxa, 
This  cannot  be  denied  as  possible,  but  it 
cannot  be  made  a  matter  of  know  ledge. 
There  is  the  same  difficulty  and  obscurity 
about  it  that  there  is  about  the  incjuiiy 
how  departed  human  souls  communicate  with 
each  other. 

The  Divine  Doxa  is  spoken  of  in  the  Chris¬ 
tian  Scriptures  as  something  in  which  they  de- 
lio’ht,  and  if  so,  it  cannot  be  for  Father,  Son  and 

o  ' 

Holy  Spirit,  anything  barren.  But  it  passeth 
knowledge.  Wonderful  as  it  is,  it  is  to  be 
shared  by  the  perfected  creature, — but  he,  to 
share  it  must  pass  through  a  prior  obscuration. 
We  are  in  this  obscuration,  and  if  angels  now, 
or  ever,  shared  the  pure  glory,  they  must  have 
passed  through  an  obscuration.  And  the 
inquiry  emerges  whether  the  whole  question 
of  angelic  existence  would  not  have  fewer 
difficulties,  if  their  creation  is  regarded  as 
subsequent  and  not  anterior  to  the  determi¬ 
nations  which  constitute  our  universe.  There 
are  difficulties  in  the  way  of  thinking  that 
they  could  have  shared  ctb  initio  the  pure 
glory.  That  which  God  did  not  ever  bestow 


160 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


is  self -existence.  Since  he  eternally  bestows 
self-existence,  that  which  he  bestows  is  also 
God,  and  thus  we  have  the  generation  of  the 
Son  from  the  Father.  Now,  in  our  thought, 
the  Godhead  becomes  fructifying,  and  love  is 
an  eternal  act,  whereby  is  the  Holy  Spirit.  But 
that  which  is  not  eternally  self-existent,  must 
have  a  beginning.  The  highest  exhibition  or 
act  of  love,  when  it  transcends  the  self-existent, 
is  the  bringing  into  being  that  which  can  re¬ 
ciprocate  it.  To  be  made  perfect  by  the  divine 
-fiat  is  a  lower  effort  of  divine  love,  than  if 
the  created  spirit  is  to  create  himself  as  to  his 
moral  form.  Therefore  he  must  undergo 
development  in  the  sphere  that  is  set  him, 
and  arise  out  of  the  nature  ground.  For  him 
the  Divine  Glory  must  be  obscured  that  he  by 
his  own  effort  may  become  fit  for  the  removal 
of  the  obscuration.  And  angels  cannot  be  free 
from  this  need.  Otherwise  they  are  a  far 

t / 

lower  order  of  created  spirits  than  man  him¬ 
self,  and  moral  evil  could  never  be  predicated 
as  possible  or  actual  for  them. 

Thus  the  determinations  of  the  Divine  Glory 
appear  as  a  process.  How  wonderfully  this 
unfolds  itself  to  our  vision  !  Here  science  fur- 


“  A  NATURE  IN  GOD. 


161 


nishes  constantly  new  food  for  our  imagination 
and  delight.  How  poor  would  our  existence 
be  were  it  only  spiritual !  The  reality  of  the 
Divine  love  is  shown  by  the  existence  and  the 
movement  of  the  material.  This  constitutes 
God’s  organ  of  communication  with  all  pos¬ 
sible  spirits,  and  is  the  means  for  the  enrich¬ 
ment  of  their  being.  In  this  wealthy  field 
the  soul,  as  imagination,  may  play  unchecked, 
and  how  wonderful  are  the  results  it  achieves  ! 
Man’s  victories  over  it  and  comprehension  of 
it  have  been  incessant,  and  the  desire  for 
further  knowledge  and  power  grows  more 
intense,  and  has  an  ever-deepening  hope  or 
conviction  that  it  will  he  forever  gratified. 
And  if  God  is  infinite  in  resource,  is  transcen¬ 
dent  as  well  as  immanent,  his  thoughts  can 
never  be  exhausted,  and  illimitable  time  will 
bring  no  weariness  nor  cessation  of  growth  and 

o 

activity. 

When  thought  as  pure  spirit,  as  trans¬ 
cendent  only,  and  aloof  from  his  glory,  and 
its  possibilities,  the  Divine  Being  appears  as 
cold,  self-sufficient,  unapproachable.  The  uni¬ 
verse  shows  that  he  can  be  approached,  and 
he  an  object  for  the  heart,  as  well  as  for  the 


162 


MENS  CHRIST I. 


mind.  How  the  infinite  space  is,  through 
astronomic  efforts,  becoming  filled  with  won¬ 
ders  !  What  a  harvest  is  here  for  human 
intelligence,  what  possibilities  of  delight ! 
And  all  this  too,  must  enter  into  the  divine 
delight.  And  now,  if  we  ask,  if  the  divine 
delight  existed  anterior  to  these  determinations 
which  make  the  universe  known  to  us  as 
possible  to  furnish  delight, — if  Jesus  could 
say :  4  Glorify  thou  me  with  the  glory  which 
I  had  with  thee  before  the  world  was,”  let  us 
remember  that  while  about  the  Divine  Doxa, 
before  the  determinations  which  make  it  an 
object  for  our  knowledge,  we  can  make  no 
positive  affirmations,  we  are  authorized  to 
make  no  negative  ones.  We  are  not  obliged  to 

CJ  Co 

think  the  divine  love,  under  time  conditions, 
as  inactive,  and  that  the  Divine  Being  can 
be  affirmed  as  not  forever  transcending  himself 
for  therebv  the  very  notion  of  the  divine 
love  is  put  to  risk.  But  at  the  same  time  no 
one  can  affirm  that  God  transcended  himself 
in  any  form  that  can  come  within  the  scope 
of  our  present  knowledge.  And  this  mys¬ 
terious  reserve  of  possibilities  is  only  an  af¬ 
firmation  of  the  divine  infinity. 


A  NATURE  IN  GOD. 


163 


a 


It  is  an  axiom  that  no  concrete  existence 
is  simple  ;  for,  if  you  affirm  any  thing  what¬ 
ever  of  it,  you  imply  relations  to  something 
else.  Thus  the  Godhead,  to  be  a  sufficient 
first  principle,  can  not  be  thought  as  a  simple. 
Hence  the  absolute  need  for  our  thought  that 
we  should  discover  the  immanent  relations 
which  constitute  the  definition  of  pure  spirit. 
Herein  too  is  displayed  on  one  side  the  possi¬ 
bility  of  its  transcending  itself,  and  if  the 
possibility,  then  the  actuality.  Here  occurs 
the  Doxa  as  furnishing  the  possibility  of  this 
on  the  other  side,  and  thus  it  is  assumed  as  eter¬ 
nal,  or  out  of  time,  but  not  in  any  determined 
form  in  time.  To  find  in  the  Doxa  itself  eter¬ 
nal  immanent  relations  would  seem  to  promise 
to  render  easier  the  explanation  of  the  actual 
universe.  And  hence  Boehme  thought  that 
he  had  discovered  in  it  such  relations  as 
could  make  possible  the  form  of  the  actual 
determination.  The  success  of  this  and  the 
need  of  this  we  have  questioned,  declaring 
that  the  synthesizing  of  the  pure  glory  by  spirit 
is  all  that  is  required.  But  this  does  not  deny 
the  possibility  of  determinations  before  our 
known  determinations.  The  Christian  Scrip- 


164 


MENS  CHKISTI. 


tures  afford  us  no  help  for  our  thought  here, 
yet  they  do  speak  of  the  Divine  Doxa  in  such 
terms,  as  to  startle  the  human  mind  and 
awaken  its  hope  and  aspirations.  Human 
longings  are  as  much  physical  as  spiritual.  In 
this  is  the  explanation  of  the  emotion  of  the 
beautiful,  and  if  this  have  an  objective  ground, 
then  beauty  is  eternal,  and  God  shares  to 
the  full  the  delight  we  have  in  it,  and  it  is 
for  us  the  most  captivating  and  entrancing 
characteristic  of  all  his  works.  The  flowers 
that  bloom  in  the  recesses  of  the  wilderness, 
the  bright  colors  in  the  ocean  depths,  the 
whirling  spirals  of  the  nebulae,  all  form,  color, 
motion  is  accompanied  by  the  divine  delight, 
and  such  as  even  we  can  reproduce  in  our¬ 
selves.  Thus  no  one  can  affirm  that  a  per¬ 
petual  outpouring  of  the  beautiful  has  not 
existed  from  all  eternity,  or  that  there  is  any 
limit  to  its  possible  variety  or  change. 

The  coincidence  of  the  intimations  of  the 
Christian  Scriptures  with  the  finest  results  of 
human  thinking  in  all  its  branches  (aesthetics 
here  included  as  illustration),  is  for  us  an 
evidence  that  there  is  a  divine  element  in 
them,  anticipating  the  last  human  mental 


“  A  NATURE  IN  GOD. 


165 


achievements,  and  keeps  alive  the  belief  that 
they  are  more  profound  than  all  science  and 
do  really  contain  the  ultimate  philosophy. 
If  so,  they  cannot  have  been,  as  yet,  exhausted 
as  to  their  meaning ;  and  the  progress  of 
human  knowledge  in  other  pathways  must 
continually  brine:  out  new  meanings  and 

t  V- 

correct  all  foregone  misapprehensions.  It  does 
not  follow  that  they  need  to  be  always  co¬ 
incident  with  our  empirical  knowledge,  seeing 
that  this  is  in  perpetual  flux  ;  but  that  the 
essential  thought,  the  developing  idea  which 
underlies  all  phenomenal  changes,  has  been 
intuited  more  clearly  by  their  authors  than  by 
the  rest  of  us.  The  deepest  thought  must 
elude  the  possibilities  of  language,  which  has 
grown  up  from  mere  superficial  knowledge, 
and  hence  can  only  express  itself  by  symbols. 
And  here  one  can  recall  the  numerous  expres¬ 
sions  in  the  Scriptures  concerning  the  divine 
glory,  as  though  it  were  something  that  could 
he  made  apparent  to  human  vision.  Moses’ 
burning  bush,  the  transfigured  garments  on 
the  mount,  St.  Stephen’s  shining  face,  the 
vague  images  of  the  Apocalypse — all  these 
show  the  profound  conviction  in  the  minds 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


166 

of  those  who  recorded  these  things  of  the 
presence  of  something  wonderful  that  could 
only  be  expressed  by  symbol. 

Holding;  this  notion  of  the  Divine  Doxa  in 
our  thought,  gives  fixedness  and  perpetuity 
to  the  existing  universe.  It  is  not  to  “  pass 
away  as  a  dream  when  one  awaketh.”  Ac- 
cording  to  the  old  formula  that  which  sprang 
out  of  the  absolute  nothing  may  return  to  the 
absolute  nothing.  There  is  no  contradiction 
involved.  But  if  the  ground  of  the  material 
universe  is  itself  eternal,  and  the  divine  glory 
is  needful  for  the  divine  delight  (which  is 
something  more  than  self-contemplation,  or 
imaginative  reproduction  of  the  infinite 
resources  of  the  Logos),  if  the  divine  thoughts 
are  acts,  and  their  spring  is  love,  and  their 
final  cause  reciprocal  love,  extending  forever 
in  space  and  time,  then  we  have  warrant  to 
think  the  perpetuity  of  the  material  universe, 
and  that  we  have  not  prized  it  and  cannot 
prize  it  too  highly.  Out  of  its  capacities  are 
to  come  our  own  growth  and  enrichment  in 
knowledge,  and  a  sphere  for  our  own  activity. 
God  is  richer  and  fuller  for  our  conception. 
The  doctrine  of  resurrection,  or  physical  glori- 


1G7 


“  A  NATURE  IN  GOD. 

fication,  receives  new  confirmation.  They  who 
deny  it  have  not  valued  enough  the  material 
universe,  and  give  us  but  an  impo\  eiished 
field  upon  which  to  indulge  our  imagination. 
Philosophy  may  value  chiefly  the  thought 
which  the  analysis  of  the  material  universe 
reveals,  but  the  emotion  accompanying  this 
is  too  cold.  The  poetic  attitude  is  warmer, 
regards  the  symbols  of  thought  as  living 
things,  and  thus  its  scope  is  wider  and  so  truer 
than  that  of  philosophy  itself.  Thus  the  alle¬ 
gation  that  poets  hold  truth  and  fact  in  the 
most  consistent  synthesis,  and  thus  that  they 
are  the  nearest  to  the  secret  of  the  universe, 
receives  even  speculative  confirmation. 


LECTURE  VI 


THE  IMPOTENCE  AND  THE  RIGHT  USE  OF  IM¬ 
AGINATION  IN  DEALING  WITH  CHRISTIAN 
DOCTRINE. 

In  the  lecture  which  follows  I  endeavor  to 
point  out  the  source  of  many  of  the  untenable 
or  incoherent  views  of  Christian  doctrine 
which  have  been  hindrances  in  the  way  of 
advance  in  theologic  science. 

I  give  only  a  specimen,  for  to  treat  the 
topic  exhaustively  would  require  the  com¬ 
position  of  a  treatise,  which  I  may  at  some 
day  undertake.  There  would  thus  be  furnished 
another  evidence  that  the  solution  of  all 
problems,  whether  of  physical  science,  psy¬ 
chology,  or  theology,  depends  upon  the  phi¬ 
losophy  or  ideal  construction  of  the  whole 
fabric  of  knowledge,  which  is  implicit  in  the 
mind  of  one  who  attempts  it.  He  who 
endeavors  to  build  up  his  system  upon 
exegetical  or  historic  grounds  solely  is  quite 
as  much  dominated  by  his  philosophy  as  he 

who  pursues  any  other  method. 

168 


IMPOTENCE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


169 


Imagination  is  commonly  spoken  or  written 
of  as  the  representative  faculty— that  which 
takes  up  the  impressions  derived  through  the 
senses,  and  which  have  become  perceptions 
by  falling  into  the  moulds  supplied  by  the 
understanding,  and  reproduces  them  in  con¬ 
sciousness  as  accurately  as  possible,  or  recom¬ 
bines  them  into  a  new  result  having  apparent 
unity,  so  as  to  present  them  thus  to  the  mind 

for  its  work  or  its  play. 

The  linking  together  the  material  supplied 
by  memory,  in  a  loose  or  arbitrary  way,  is 
sometimes  called  Fancy  ;  while  the  unifying 
of  this  content  so  as  to  produce  a  self- 
consistent  whole  has  been  spoken  of  as  the 
work  of  imagination  proper,  thus  distin¬ 
guished.  Both  mental  movements  are  partly 
spontaneous  and  partly  deliberate.  The 
passivity  is  only  seeming.  The  activity  is 
actual  even  in  the  most  apparent  spontaneity, 
and  may  consist  in  its  lowest  degree  merely 
in  the  will’s  refraining  from  any  interference 
with  the  play  of  association,  and  holding  the 
mind  steady  during  this  riot  of  images.  But 
a  more  manifestly  willful  procedure  is  when 
the  mind  yields  to  the  attraction  to  pass  be- 


170 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


yond  itself,  to  infuse  itself  into  the  image,  and 
reproduce  itself  in  its  life ;  when  it  becomes ,  as 
it  were,  for  the  time  being  that  which  it  con¬ 
templates.  This  activity  is  always  accom¬ 
panied  by  emotion,  a  kind  of  melting  of  the 
individual  life  into  the  universal  life,  or  that 
of  some  of  its  concretions.  Thus  imagination 
comes  to'  be  called  the  creative  faculty. 

Manifestly  in  all  these  procedures  the 
mind  deals  only  with  the  concrete,  with  ideas 
or  thoughts  which  have  been  made  real  and 
sensible.  When  by  pure  thinking  the  abstract 
idea  has  been  disengaged,  it  becomes  matter 
for  thought  solely  ;  and  imagination  is  robbed 
of  its  material.  It  can  do  nothing  with  the 
naked  ideas  except  by  clothing  them  again 
with  the  body  which  has  been  abstracted. 
But  so  habitual  and  constant  in  every  human 
being  has  become  its  exercise,  that  it  vainly 
or  reveimefullv  still  continues  to  intrude  into 

O  ts' 

the  region  of  the  pure  ideas,  annuls  the  ab¬ 
straction,  blinds  itself  to  the  fact  that  it  has 
done  so,  engaging  the  mind,  meanwhile,  to 
draw  inferences  onty  valid  if  the  abstraction 
lias  not  been  made,  and  thus  beclouds  or 
distorts  the  ideas  themselves.  All  which  has 


IMPOTENCE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


171 


been  the  source  of  constant  mistake  or  con¬ 
fusion  in  many  mental  endeavors,  as  well  as 
in  the  meditation  upon  distinctively  religious 
truth.  Thus  imagination  is  a  faculty  which, 
more  than  any  other,  needs  restraining  and 
regulating,  and  to  have  its  proper  function 
clearly  defined. 

It  would  be  interesting,  in  this  connection, 
to  make  a  comparison,  so  far  as  it  can  be 
made,  between  this  faculty  in  the  brute  (which 
manifestly  possesses  and  uses  it)  and  in  the 
human  being  ;  between  its  exercise  when  deal¬ 
ing  with  material  undetermined  by  spirit- 
relations,  and  with  that  so  determined.  But 
this  would  be  an  independent  and  a  large 
topic. 

The  faculty  of  imagination  is  a  universal 
human  possession,  yet  exists  in  individuals  in 
different  degrees  of  activity.  Probably  its 
degrees  are  ruled  by  physical  or  physiological 
conditions  rather  than  by  spiritual  ones.  On 
account  of  these  it  varies  in  quickness  and 
vividness,  and  in  the  extent  of  its  range ;  yet 
in  every  one  it  is  in  constant  activity,  mediates 
the  whole  passage  from  abstract  consciousness 
to  any  act  of  will,  presents  the  immediate  or 


172 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


remote  result  which  gives  end  and  impetus  to 
action.  It  sometimes  carries  the  mind  out  of 
itself  so  completely  as  to  reduce  the  pure 
thought  power  almost  to  passivity,  to  make  the 
man  the  victim  of  some  image  or  ideal  presen¬ 
tation  which  alone  he  sees,  to  the  exclusion 
of  everything  else.  This  fact  must  affect  his 
actual  responsibility,  and  teaches  us  that  to 
judge  of  the  absolute  moral  worth  of  a  man 
or  his  actions  is  no  superficial  problem,  but 
one  requiring  no  less  than  the  divine  insight. 

The  errors,  delusions,  superstitions,  impure 
or  incoherent  philosophies  which  have  been  so 
rife  in  human  history,  all  probably  owe  their 
origin  largely  to  the  misuse  of  imagination. 

To  exhibit  some  of  the  unfortunate  results 
of  its  dealing  with  theological  doctrines,  or 
problems  related  thereto,  to  show  thus  its 
impotence,  and  then  to  point  out  and  limit 
its  true  function  in  dealing  with  such  matter, 
is  my  present  design. 

All  the  object-matter  with  which  imagi¬ 
nation  may  successfully  deal  is  contained  in 
space.  These  bounded  spaces,  made  real  by 
the  senses  of  sight  and  touch,  are  its  proper 
material.  But  imagination  tries  to  compass 


IMPOTENCE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


173 


the  absolute  space  itself,  to  try  its  wing  in  the 
illimitable.  It  projects  the  self-consciousness 
into  the  infinite  abyss,  passes  beyond  the 
planets  and  stars  and  systems,  to  which  it  must 
give  relative  location,  passes  beyond  them 
to  find  itself  in  pure  vacancy,  with  an  inter¬ 
minable  distance  before  it,  rendered  no  less 
by  any  speed  or  any  duration  of  time.  It 
must  abandon  the  endeavor,  and  confess  its 
impotence,  in  dealing  with  absolute  space. 
Instead  of  concluding,  then,  that  pure  space 
is  not  for  imagination,  but  for  pure  thought 
only,  the  mind,  as  represented  by  this  faculty, 
still  abides  in  its  delusion,  and  supplies  further 
objects  on  which  it  may  rest,  and  after  the 
exhaustion  of  its  known  objects  supplies  an 
attenuated  ether,  or  locates  a  far-distant 
heaven  or  paradise  or  hell ;  all  which  in¬ 
ventions  may  become  delusions,  not  neces¬ 
sarily  mischievous,  but  certainly  troubling 
and  misleading  the  thinking  faculty  in  its 
search  after  the  truth. 

This,  the  mind’s  impotence  to  compass  the 
infinite  space,  has  been  noted  and  so  dealt 
with  by  Sir  William  Hamilton  and  by  Dean 
Mansel,  as  to  lead  them  to  deny  or  misinter- 


174 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


pret  the  mind’s  idea  of  the  infinite,  making  it 
but  a  negation  of  the  finite,  and  the  result  of 
the  limitation  of  the  human  intellect,  they  not 
perceiving  that  the  finite  and  infinite  are 
correlatives  ;  that  one  implies  the  other  ;  that 
one  is  as  positive  as  the  other ;  that  they  are 
pure  thoughts  only,  though  necessary  ones, 
and  apprehended  by  a  mental  movement  in 
which  imagination  takes  no  part. 

Yet  this  endeavor  to  compass  the  infinite 
need  not  be  repressed,  and  has  its  own  high 
reward.  It  brings  about  the  emotion  of  the 
sublime.  Though  ending  in  failure,  the  mind 
has  been  expanded,  has  attempted  a  larger  life 
than  its  customarv  one,  and  thus  is  hinted 
that  we  are  intended  and  fitted  for  a  larger 
life,  that  our  career  is  to  be  an  endless  growth, 
a  projection  toward  an  ever-receding  circum¬ 
ference — a  life  that  will  grow  richer  and  richer 
forever  and  forever  as  it  meets  and  appropri¬ 
ates  the  ever-during  outgushings  from  the 
supernal  and  inexhaustible  fountain. 

Imagination  may  and  does  rightly  deal 
much  with  human  beings  as  concretes,  with 
human  souls  as  related  to  and  determined  by 
the  physical  organization  and  environment. 


I 


IMPOTENCE  OF  IMAGINATION.  175 

But  it  has  not  restrained  itself  from  attempt¬ 
ing  to  deal  with  the  spiritual  psyche,  with  the 
human  soul  aloof  from  its  bodily  organ¬ 
ization.  It  follows  it  beyond  the  article  of 
death,  and  fills  that  whole  region  with  delu¬ 
sions. 

For  our  present  knowledge,  death  is  the 
severance  of  the  existing  bond  connecting  the 
human  being  with  the  physical  universe,  as 
we  know  it.  Though  by  pure  thinking  we 
may  find  ourselves  obliged  to  acknowledge 
that  we  cannot  regard  the  spiritual  soul  after 
death  as  entirely  out  of  relation  to  the  physical 
universe,  as  without  an  environment,  without 
organs  or  media  of  communication  ;  yet  this 
relation  is  an  abstract  one  for  thought,  and 
cannot  be  described  in  the  terms  of  our  present 
knowledge.  Hence  imagination  is  without  its 
proper  material,  and  if  it  attempts  to  disport 
itself  here,  it  can  only  do  so  by  covertly  im¬ 
porting  back  the  body  and  its  physical  re¬ 
lations,  which,  according  to  our  present 
knowledge,  have  been  abandoned,  or  changed 
into  something  which  defies  conjecture.  With 
what  material  imagination  may  deal  legiti- 
mately  here  needs  to  be  carefully  defined  ;  and 


176 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


we  shall  see,  later  on,  that  it  is  not  entirely 
without  function. 

In  these,  its  vagaries,  it  dilutes  the  material 
which  it  brings  back  to  suit  its  purpose.  It 
deals  with  matter  still,  hut  with  matter  attenu¬ 
ated  more  and  deprived  of  some  of  its  proper¬ 
ties.  Thus  we  have  stories  of  ghosts,  of  spirit¬ 
ual  souls,  which  can  be  seen  and  heard,  and 
are  either  without  gravity,  or  which  might  be 
touched  were  our  senses  fine  enough.  Thus 
the  human  soul  is  still  figured  as  a  material 
entity,  located  or  moving  in  the  absolute  space. 

t 

The  world  of  our  knowledge  and  the  body  of 
our  mundane  consciousness  are  thus  resup¬ 
plied,  and  the  mind’s  endeavor  to  make  the 
proper  abstractions  and  draw  the  proper  in¬ 
ferences  is  clogged  and  troubled.  M  e  need 
hardly  here  refer  to  the  delusions  and  super¬ 
stitions  which  have  arisen  from  this  source. 

Thus,  too,  we  have  Heaven  and  Paradise 
and  Gehenna,  figured  as  having  locality  in 
space,  fixed  or  relatively  moving  ;  and  all  the 
characteristics  of  our  home  planet  carried  into 
them  ‘7  all  which  need  not  be  necessarily  harm 
ful,  and  may  have,  when  regulated,  some  prac¬ 
tical  use,  but  which  again  troubles  our  pure 


IMPOTENCE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


177 


thinking,  and  beclouds  the  clearness  of  oui 
doctrines.  This  has  been  a  perpetual  mass  of 
debris  for  theology  to  clear  away  in  its  en- 
deavored  advance. 


Modern  science  has  been  very  helpful  to 
theology  in  removing  these  delusions.  It  has 
taught  us  that  the  whole  material  universe  is 
in  flux  and  movement ;  that  no  "  thing  ”  is  at 


any  moment  what  it  was  the  moment  befoie  , 
that  the  universe  has  been,  is,  and  is  to  be  an 
evolution,  moving  steadily  on  to  an  end,  which 
it  is  our  endeavor  to  forecast  and  interpret ; 
that  the  human  body  is  no  fixed  aggregation 
of  material  particles ;  that  its  identity  is  not 
material,  but  ideal,  a  synthesis  of  the  fixed  and 
the  changeable.  In  this  way,  through  oui 
advancing  knowledge  of  ourselt  es  and  the 
world  we  live  in,  have  many  false  notions  held 
in  the  human  mind,  and  in  the  Christian  mind 
as  well,  been  dissipated.  The  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection,  or  physical  glorification,  has  been 
thus  thought  out  more  profoundly  and  satis¬ 
factorily,  and  all  knowledge  moved  many  steps 

toward  harmonization. 

All  this  corrected  knowledge  has  weakened 


o-reatly  the  propensity  to  intolerance  which 

O  d 


178 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


besets  the  natural  man,  and  out  of  which 
Christianity  is  intended  progressively  to  lead 
him.  We  have  less  than  once  of  superstition, 
of  idolatry,  of  bigotry  and  cruelty  ;  though, 
alas  !  the  tension  of  the  elastic  cord  by  which 
Christianity  draws  man  away  from  these,  and 
which  is  not  yet  severed,  is  relaxed,  and  he 
subsides  back  into  them  too  often. 

In  another  respect  likewise  imagination  has 
proven  to  be  a  dead-weight  to  thought,  and  has 
caused  the  mind  to  sink  back  into  the  obscure 
when  it  was  about  to  mount  into  the  light ; 
has  caused  it  to  deny  or  be  blind,  when  it  was 
about  to  welcome  the  truth.  And  here,  now, 
I  must  ask  thoughtful  attention,  for  the  argu¬ 
ment  is  very  subtle. 

Science  endeavors,  by  abstraction,  to  analyze 
the  material  universe.  It  thinks  away  vitality 
and  chemistry,  and  tries  unsuccessfully  to 
think  away  mechanical  laws,  and  finding  that 
it  cannot  do  that,  simplifies  them.  In  all  this 
process  imagination  has  been  active  and  useful. 
It  brings  us  at  length  from  the  manifestly 
heterogeneous  to  the  apparently  homogeneous. 
It  gives  us  the  nebular  hypothesis,  figures  an 
immense  aggregation  of  similar  particles,  ex- 


IMPOTENCE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


179 


tremelv  attenuated,  removed  from  all  possi- 
bilitv  of  relation  to  our  present  senses,  and 
these  in  motion — motion  according  to  an  idea, 
however,  and  whose  result  is  our  present 
universe.  If  thought  abstracts  motion  from 
this  mass,  it  is  left  dead  and  alien,  and  these 
particles  are  out  of  all  relation,  except  relative 
location  in  space.  To  make  it  living  and 
productive  motion  must  be  resupplied  from 
the  spirit  realm,  which  furnishes  the  pure 
energy,  the  idea,  and  the  final  cause.  As  long, 
however,  as  size,  shape,  and  relative  location 
are  left  to  the  particles  of  this  attenuated 
matter,  imagination  may  still  deal  with  these, 
though  not  fruitfully.  Philosophic  thinking 
must  either  assume  this  stadium  as  permanent 
or  eternal,  or  must  account  for  it.  To  assume  it 
as  permanent  or  eternal  gives  us  the  Platonic 
Duality,  which  so  lowers  our  conception  of  the 
divine  that  the  mind  refuses  to  rest  in  it. 
Besides,  absolute  rest  is  a  pure  hypothesis,  with 
no  philosophic  need  for  it,  and  no  a  posteriori 
evidence  to  support  it  or  even  for  more  than  a 
moment  suggest  it.  Thus  philosophy  takes  up 
the  problem  where  science  leaves  it,  and  en¬ 
deavors  to  account  for  the  existence  of  matter, 


180 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


reduced  by  science  to  its  simplest  form.  But 
it  is  evident  that  at  this  stage  of  the  mental 
procedure  imagination  is  left  without  a  foot¬ 
hold.  If  size,  shape,  and  relative  locality  are 
abstracted,  it  has  no  longer  any  material  with 
which  to  deal.  The  philosophic  procedure 
now  retires  to  the  contemplation  of  spirit.  It 
finds  there  only  the  immanent  relations  of 
the  Godhead,  required  to  think  personality, 
thought  and  love.  What  has  been  called  the 
actus  purus  is  only  a  timeless  relation.  Activ¬ 
ity,  in  the  sense  of  energy  producing  change, 
is  a  time  conception,  and  carries  us  at  once 
beyond  the  compass  of  pure  spirit.  There 
must  be  a  somewhat  upon  which  it  is  exer¬ 
cised.  Ex-hypothese  it  is  not  something  alien, 
limiting  the  divine  activity  ;  therefore  it  must 
be  somewhat  eternal  and  essential  to  the  con¬ 
stitution  of  the  first  principle  itself. 

If  the  attempt  is  made  to  think  activity 
within  the  circle  of  pure  spirit,  it  evaporates 
into  the  conception  of  relation  solely,  and 
out  of  this  no  universe  can  ever  come. 
That  there  is  a  somewhat  belonging  to  the 
eternal  constitution  of  the  Godhead  which 
cannot  be  spoken  of  in  the  terms  of  pure 


IMPOTENCE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


181 


spirit  the  Scriptures  everywhere  assert  or 
imply;  and  they  call  it  the  Divine  Doxa, 
speak  of  it  as  shared  by  Father,  Son,  and 
Spirit  before  all  creation.  Hence  creation 
itself  is  but  the  determination  of  this  by 
the  divine  thought  and  energy.  Thus 
science,  philosophy,  and  revelation,  all  lead 
us  by  their  several  pathways  to  this,  and 
in  this  way  find  their  desired  reconcilia¬ 
tion. 

But  now  occurs  the  obscuration  and  con¬ 
fusion  wrought  by  imagination.  The  mind, 
instead  of  resting  content  with  the  recogni¬ 
tion  of  this  to  which  it  has  been  led  by 
pure  thinking,  yields  to  the  impulse  of 
imagination,  and  attempts  to  deal  with  this 
abstract  divine  glory,  which  it  can  only  do  by 
bringing  back  the  very  relations  which  have 
been  abstracted,  and  dealing  with  it  as  if 
determined.  Thus  the  very  duality  which 
thought  had  avoided  is  brought  back  by 
imagination. 

When  thus  presented,  revelation  and 
philosophy  present  their  objections  to  this 
duality,  and  rightly  ;  yet  the  ordinary  mina, 
and  even  the  theological  mind,  still  fet- 


182 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


tered  by  the  imaginative  delusion,  comes  to 
deny  or  fail  to  apprehend  the  divine  glory 
as  anything  objective,  and  degrades  it  into 
a  mere  subjective  something,  to  which  no 
meaning  whatever  can  be  attached  except 
by  presupposing  the  possible  regard  of 
created  intelligence ;  and  thus  it  is  lost  to 
the  mind  as  anything  eternal  or  divine. 
It  is  commonly  regarded  as  the  divine 
wealth  of  ideas  merely,  for  which  we  have 
another  word,  the  divine  Logos,  or  the 
divine  complacency  or  love,  not  seeing  that 
this  can  undergo  no  suspension  or  diminu¬ 
tion. 

Yet  the  Scriptures  interpose  many  safe¬ 
guards  against  this  tendency.  They  nowhere 
identify  the  divine  glory  with  pure  being, 
or  thought,  or  love.  They  make  it  the 
property  of  neither  Father,  Son,  nor  Holy 
Spirit,  except  through  mutual  possession. 
They  speak  of  it  as  something  shared  by 
them,  as  something  by  virtue  of  which  the 
universe  may  become  and  has  become,  and 
which  the  universe  declares  and  shows  forth. 
They  connect  it  rather  with  the  material 
than  the  spiritual ;  never  speak  of  it  in  the 


IMPOTENCE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


183 


terms  of  spirit,  but  rather  as  that  fiom 
which  the  material  in  its  first  form  came. 
Its  first  determination,  according  to  these 
writings,  was  the  creation  ot  Light,  which 
to  be  known  as  light  by  those  yet  to  be, 
and  for  whom  was  the  creative  fiat,  must 
be  contrasted  with  the  obscure.  God  only 
lives  in  the  pure  glory.  All  created  intel¬ 
ligence  must  live  in  the  determined  light, 
and  from  this  contrast  of  the  clear  and  the 
obscure  all  the  boundless  richness  and  the 
varied  beauty  of  the  universe  have  become. 

Thus  the  interference  of  imagination  has 
so  presented  this  doctrine  to  the  mind  as 
to  make  it  objectionable,  and  has  led  to 
the  denial  or  the  oblivion  of  an  essential 
truth.  It  has  brought  about  this  prolonged 
discord  between  revelation,  philosophy,  and 
science,  and  hindered  the  work  of  unifica¬ 
tion.  That  which  ought  to  be,  and  is,  a 
mere  negative  attitude  of  the  mind  halting, 
as  imagination,  before  that  to  which  it  has 
been  led  by  abstraction,  yet,  as  the  pure 
thought  power,  availing  itself  of  it  to  unify 
its  content,  is  contorted  into  a  positive  atti¬ 
tude  asserting  something,  which,  if  any  pre- 


184 


MENS  CHEISTI. 


dications  whatever  are  made  concerning  it, 
must  be  regarded  as  still  material.  Thus 
to  the  naked  idea  which  thought  requires 
as  essential  to  unification,  Imagination  has 
given  body  and  content ;  has  thus  hung  a 
weight  upon  thought,  and  confused  and 
postponed  the  attempted  clarification  of 
Christian  doctrine. 

As  the  positive  result  of  what  lias  been 
said  thus  far  it  follows  that  “  creation  ”  and 
“evolution”  are  the  same  thing,  and  that 
the  former  is  only  rightly  thought  as  the 
latter.  But  this  doctrine  of  the  divine  im¬ 
manence  is  rescued  from  the  charge  of  pan¬ 
theism  only  by  holding  at  the  same  time 
the  divine  transcendence,  i.  e.  that  the  uni¬ 
verse  as  we  know  it ,  or  may  ever  know  it, 
does  not  exhaust  the  sum  of  the  divine 
capacities.  Bather,  the  conception  of  the 
Godhead  which  we  have  reached,  as  essential 
love,  by  which  only  it  is  an  adequate  First 
Principle,  implies  an  eternal  activity,  and  a 
persistent  transcendence.  And  God  is  imma¬ 
nent  in  every  such  out-going.  But  the  re¬ 
sults  of  the  divine  activity  exclusive  of  the 
result  which  has  come,  and  is  coming  within 


IMPOTENCE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


185 


our  knowledge,  are  closed  lor  our  present 
thought.  The  universe  of  our  possible  know  1- 
edge  does  not  meet  the  requirements  of  our 
aspiration. 

Also,  in  dealing  wuth  the  Godhead  in  its  im¬ 
manent  relations,  with  it  as  pure  spirit, 
imagination  has  led  into  incoherent  view  s, 
not  necessarily  harmful,  but  also  into  errors 
wdiich  are  mischievous  and  lia\  e  caused 
many  of  the  strifes  and  divisions  of  Chris- 

tendom. 

The  declarations  of  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures  authorize  the  ascription  of  personality 
to  what  is  called  the  Father,  as  well  as  to 
that  which  is  called  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy 
Spirit  ;  and  also  the  ascription  to  each  of 
these  of  essential  divinity.  To  reconcile 
these  statements  is  a  problem  for  pure 
thinking,  in  which  the  Christian  mind  re¬ 
gards  itself  as  having  succeeded.  But  im- 
agination  here  likewise  interferes,  and  as¬ 
cribes  to  each  of  these  the  characteristics  of 
human  personality.  It  figures  three  several 
consciousnesses  (if  this  word  can  be  rightly 
pluralized) ,  each  in  itself  independent,  and 
neither  necessary  to  the  thought  of  the 


186 


MEXS  CHRISTI. 


other  ;  hence  three  wills,  or  possible  activi¬ 
ties,  only  arbitrarily  in  accord,  or  in  accord 
from  the  moral  necessity  of  love.  Thus  we 
have  a  virtual  Tritheism,  with  its  attendant 
difficulties.  The  doubting  mind  relucts 
from  this,  and  divisions  in  Christendom 
have  arisen  in  consequence.  The  expressed 
mind  of  the  Church  in  its  conciliar  decisions 
has  guarded  against  this,  but  the  propensity 
still  persists.  No  doubt  the  common  Chris¬ 
tian  mind,  ever  victimized  by  imagination, 
thinks  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  Trin¬ 
ity  in  this  tritheistic  way,  which  may  not 
necessarily  be  harmful  to  its  devotional  or 
practical  life,  but  also  may  and  has  been. 
No  doubt  this  has  helped  along  the  propen¬ 
sity  to  multiply  the  objects  of  worship,  and 
has  encouraged  the  cultus  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  and  other  saints.  It  is  then  need¬ 
ful  that  theology  should  so  rule  the  public 
Christian  instruction  as  to  obviate  this  pro¬ 
pensity,  and  render  needless  the  assaults  of 
unbelief  or  misbelief. 

The  Christian  Scriptures  have  guarded 
against  this  propensity  likewise, — give  no  en¬ 
couragement  to  it.  They  furnish  material 


IMPOTENCE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


187 


for  imagination  in  thinking  the  last  mani¬ 
festation  of  the  divine  in  the  incarnate  Son  ; 
stimulate  it  in  setting  forth  so  clearly  and 
minutely  and  amply  Jesus  Christ  and  his 
career.  Here  imagination  cannot  be  too 
busy  or  do  too  much.  But  they  furnish 
no  suggestion,  help,  or  stimulus  to  imagina¬ 
tion  in  dealing  with  the  Father  or  the  Holy 
Spirit.  These  only  manifest  themselves  to 
human  apprehension  in  symbols,  in  the 
voice,  or  the  tongues  of  flame,  or  other¬ 
wise  ;  in  symbols  variable,  and  which  give  no 
hint  whatever  of  the  essential  being  of  what 
they  symbolize,  and  are  only  media  of  commu- 
nication. 

Again,  at  the  time  of  the  celebration  of 
the  Lord’s  Supper,  imagination  is  very  apt 
to  busy  itself  in  a  manner  not  indicated  by 
the  requirements  and  significance  of  this 
ordinance.  As  when  it  creates  a  mental 
image  of  Jesus’  concrete  divine-human  person, 
and  connects  it  with  the  transaction  then 
ensuing.  This  here  has  no  special  signifi¬ 
cance,  and  is  no  whit  different  from  what 
may  be  done  at  any  other  time.  It  is  a 
mere  arbitrary  juxtaposition,  is  not  required 


188 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


at  the  time,  and  rather  diverts  the  mind 
from  its  proper  work.  Also,  when  certain 
views  of  this  sacrament  are  held,  imagina¬ 
tion  endeavors  to  present  some  indetermi¬ 
nate,  vague,  and  shadowy  image  of  our 
Lord’s  flesh  and  blood  beneath  the  shews 
of  the  bread  and  the  wine,— to  imagine 
a  miracle,  in  short — in  which  attempt  fail¬ 
ure  is  inevitable,  and  the  effort  has  been 
wasted.  This  impotent  effort,  which  is  ab¬ 
solutely  without  result,  has  even  been 
called  an  act  of  faith,  and  this  significant 
word,  with  its  profound  ethical  and  relig¬ 
ious  implications,  has  thus  been  applied 
to  a  mere  mental  effort,  which,  even  if  it  could 
be  successful,  could  have  no  reaction  upon  the 

character. 

■* 

As  a  final  illustration,  we  may  note  that 
in  dealing  with  the  problems  of  Escha¬ 
tology  the  vagaries  of  imagination  have  been 
markedly  mischievous.  In  dealing  with  the 
condition  of  souls  after  death,  and  drawing 
inferences,  the  mind,  in  the  imaginative 
effort,  overpasses  the  bound  where  pure 
thought  has  left  the  doctrine  of  the  Inter¬ 
mediate  State,  and  carries  into  it  still  the 


IMPOTENCE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


189 


universe  as  determined  according  to  our 
present  knowledge.  It  carries  the  material 
elements,  with  all  their  properties  (however 
refined,  still  material),  it  carries  the  human 
body,  with  its  possible  enjoyments  and 
sufferings,  into  this  abstract  realm,  and 
gives  us  purgatorial  fires,  or  some  other 
forms  of  physical  pain  or  enjoyment.  Even 
in  dealing  with  the  resurrected  bodies, 
whether  glorified  or  not,  it  still  regards 
them  as  fixed  aggregations  of  matter,  and 
gives  them  spatial  or  dynamic  determina¬ 
tions  similar  to  our  present  ones.  All  which 
may  not  be  necessarily  harmful  in  the  prac¬ 
tical  life,  but  which  is  certainly  misleading 
in  the  endeavor  to  express  the  truth.  In 
dealing  with  the  fate  of  evil  souls  it  has 
run  riot,  and  the  symbolic  language  of  Holy 
Scripture,  of  fire,  and  brimstone,  and  the  un¬ 
dying  worm,  has  been  taken  literally.  Thus 
the  language  intended  to  inspire  moral  dread 
of  sin  has  been  made  to  produce  merely 
physical  shrinking  from  apprehended  pain. 
Imagination  has  also  given  occupations  to 
Satan  for  which  there  is  no  scriptural  war¬ 
rant,  and  thus  has  been  thrown  into  disre- 


190 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


pute  and  met  with  denial  the  profound  yet 
difficult  doctrine  of  spiritual  evil.  Indeed, 
for  imagination  the  future  life  is  our  pres¬ 
ent  life  still,  with  changes  only  arbitrarily 
introduced  ;  while,  in  truth,  the  fate  of  the 
evil  ones  is  for  thought  only,  and  no  imagi¬ 
native  presentation  is  trustworthy. 

The  endeavor  has  been  made  to  interpret 
the  Divine  Comedia  of  Dante  as  symbolical, 
on  the  ground  that  a  mind  so  keen  and 
capacious  as  his  could  not  be  content  with 
views  so  crass  of  the  future  life,  if  the  poem 
were  intended  to  be  literally  interpreted. 
There  is  probably  truth  in  this,  and  the 
poem  must  not  be  taken  to  express  Dante’s 
deliberate  theologic  opinion.  But  his  scien¬ 
tific  knowledge  was  so  meagre  that  it  is 
questionable  whether  he  was  able  to  eman¬ 
cipate  himself  from  the  erroneous  views  of 
his  time,  and  these  must  necessarily  have 
affected  his  philosophic  system.  It  is  doubt¬ 
ful,  then,  whether  the  poem  was  intended 
to  symbolize  any  system  of  thought  or  to  do 
more  than  illustrate  and  emphasize  certain 
truths  of  the  divine  moral  government. 

Milton,  too,  in  dealing  with  similar  ob- 


IMPOTENCE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


191 


ject  matter,  uses  imagination  very  freely. 
His  poem  would  not  be  interesting  had  he 
not  done  so.  But  it  is  questionable  whether 
we  are  right  in  inferring  his  theologic  opin¬ 
ion  from  this — -that,  for  instance,  he  thought 
Satan  what  he  here  presents  him,  full  of  the 
possibilities  of  good.  He  would  not  have 
been  interesting  had  he  been  made  purely 
evil.  It  is  doubtful,  too,  for  the  same  rea¬ 
son,  whether  we  can  rightly  infer  from  the 
poem  alone  Milton’s  alleged  Arianism.  The 
conception  of  the  Eternal  Son  is  modified 
for  the  needs  of  the  poem,  to  affect  its  pic¬ 
torial  power. 

Poets,  as  such,  can  deal  only  with  the 
concrete.  Verse  ceases  to  he  poetry  when 
it  deals  with  the  abstract.  Therefore  poets 
claim  the  right  to  abandon  themselves  very 
freely  to  imagination,  and  their  philosophic 
thought  cannot  be  accurately  inferred  from 
their  poetic  works.  I  have  very  little  con¬ 
fidence  in  the  attempts  so  often  made  of  late 
to  read  into  the  lines  of  Dante,  Shakespeare, 
Milton,  or  Goethe  labored  and  reasoned 
systems  of  philosophy.  The  whole  naive 
movement  of  the  poetic  mind  is  diverse 


192 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


from  this,  and  it  has  to  do  some  violence  to 
itself  to  throw  itself  into  the  philosophic 
attitude.  One  power  is  weakened  by  the 
exercise  of  the  other,  and  poets  love  their 
own  the  best,  and  cease  to  be  poets  when 
they  become  philosophers.  Some  minds,  in 
which  both  tendencies  have  been  in  strug¬ 
gle,  might  doubtless  have  accomplished 
grander  work  had  they  yielded  themselves 
entirely  to  one  propensity  or  the  other. 
Truth  cannot  be  made  explicit  for  thought 
by  imagery,  by  symbolization.  But  sym¬ 
bolization  may  give  delight,  and  strengthen 
faith  by  hinting  of  the  noumenon  veiled  in 
the  beautiful  phenomena,  and  thus  carry 
the  mind  down  into  the  depths,  so  that  a 
unified  system  comes  to  be  divined  rather 
than  thought  out,  and  one,  too,  in  which 
the  concrete  still  remains  in  all  its  warmth. 
Philosophy  proper  brings  no  emotion,  while 
poetry  brings  it  to  the  full.  The  one  is 
cold,  the  other  is  warm ;  and  this  heat 
sometimes  dissolves  error,  precipitates  it, 
and  leaves  the  purer  light.  In  this  work 
imagination  is  the  dearest  and  most  satisfy¬ 
ing  power  that  the  human  being  possesses. 


RIGHT  USE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


193 


Let  me  now  speak,  and  with  necessary 
brevity,  yet  with  reluctance  to  decline  a 
subject  so  fascinating,  of  some  of  its  uses. 

Much  has  been  said  from  time  to  time  of 
the  use  of  imagination  in  scientific  investi¬ 
gation,  and  I  remember  to  have  read  years 
ago  an  article  by  Professor  Tyndall  upon 
this  very  thesis.  I  am  inclined  to  think, 
however,  that  to  maintain  this  position  the 
word  may  have  been  used  wrongly  or  ap¬ 
plied  too  extensively. 

In  accumulating  the  facts  concerning  the 
material  universe  which  are  to  be  explained, 
memory  and  imagination  have,  of  course, 
been  busy,  and  by  the  latter  power  they 
are  held  and  retained  in  their  aggregation 
or  apparent  integrity.  But  in  the  endeavor 
to  discover  their  fundamental  law,  or  to 
unify  them,  a  provisional  or  conjectural 
theory  is  supplied  by  the  mind,  which  may 
prove  inadequate  to  explain  the  whole,  or 
may  do  so  partially.  This  is  not  drawn 
directly  from  the  special  facts  themselves, 
but  is  suggested  spontaneously,  or  possibly 
from  a  larger  induction,  whose  extent  over¬ 
laps  the  present  material,  yet  which  does 


194 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


not  come  at  the  time  into  distinct  mental 
vision.  An  illustration  of  this  is  the  Atomic 
theory,  which  serves  provisionally  to  connect 
the  facts,  and  enables  many  useful  conclusions 
to  be  drawn,  making  of  chemistry  a  pro¬ 
gressive,  comparatively  clear,  and  practical 
science ;  vet  whose  failure  to  account  for 
other  facts  throws  again  the  theory  into 
suspicion,  and  forbids  mental  rest ;  and  thus 
it  is  not  held  as  the  absolute  truth.  But 
indeed  the  interposition  of  this  or  any  other 
theory  is  not  the  work  of  imagination, 
which  deals  only  with  the  actual  concrete, 
or  with  ideal  recombinations  of  the  same. 
It  is  rather  the  work  of  pure  thought,  in 
which  the  scientific  mind  becomes  phil- 
sophic  in  spite  of  itself.  It  is  a  tenta¬ 
tive  movement  toward  the  discovery  of  a 
First  Principle.  It  is  derived  rather  from 
the  mystical  elements  of  our  complex  be- 
ing? — springs  from  its  predispositions,  and  a 
more  or  less  profound  sinking  into  their 
depths.  It  comes  up  thus  from  the  depths 
so  spontaneously  as  to  seem  an  intuition  or 
a  revelation.  But  no  sooner  has  this  law 
been  supplied  by  pure  thought  than  im- 


RIGHT  USE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


195 


agination  seizes  it  at  once,  and  busies 
itself  with  its  application  and  constructs 
its  universe  accordingly.  It  magnifies  the 
invisible,  intangible  atoms  into  something, 
which  the  senses,  were  they  sharp  enough, 
might  lay  hold  of,  and  thus  only  follows 
the  guidance  of  pure  thought,  which  again 
has  only  followed  the  innate  predispositions 
implied  in  the  creative  idea. 

All  the  concretes  in  the  universe,  in 
their  integrity,  or  their  elements,  are  the 
proper  food  for  imagination.  It  may  deal 
with  the  material  as  determined  by  the 
spiritual,  although  with  the  abstract  spir¬ 
itual  it  can  do  nothing.  The  mind  only 
possesses  all  that  comes  within  the  compass 
of  the  intuitions  of  the  senses,  for  all  its 
uses,  its  truth,  and  its  .beauty,  by  virtue  of 
imagination.  This  is  the  mediating  pas¬ 
sageway  between  these  and  all  human  activ¬ 
ity.  Every  human  being  of  necessity  uses 
it,  though  with  greatly  variant  degrees  of 
power  or  vividness.  Its  activity  is  always 
emotion,  sometimes  distressing,  but  ordi¬ 
narily  delightful.  The  emotions  of  beauty 
and  sublimity  are  simply  its  activity — the 


196 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


soul  thus  rejoicing  in  its  power  to  infuse 
itself  into,  to  live  in  the  life  of  that  which 
it  contemplates — wherein  is  the  coalescence 
of  its  own  freedom  with  the  divine  liberty. 
The  emotion  of  the  beautiful  is  simply  the 
recognition  that  the  movement  of  the  uni¬ 
verse  is  free  and  not  necessitated,  except  by 
the  self-necessitation  of  love.  In  human 
experience  all  enthusiasm  and  its  resultant 
activity  come  from  the  unusual  power  and 
vividness  of  this  faculty.  Thus  it  enlarges 
and  enriches  the  whole  sphere  of  life, 
which,  on  the  other  hand,  is  narrowed  and 
impoverished  by  its  feebleness. 

Into  the  religious  life,  into  the  contem¬ 
plation  of  Christian  truth,  its  activity  may 
be  legitimately  carried.  Heaven,  as  a  com¬ 
monwealth  of  holy  souls,  of  glorified  bodies, 
with  a  fluent  and  subservient  environment, 
is  a  field  into  which  it  may  safely  venture 
and  expatiate.  By  dwelling  upon  the 
rational  satisfaction,  the  supreme  beauty  of 
this  presentation,  it  may  strengthen  the 
loving  and  sacrificial  disposition  and  harden 
the  spiritual  fibre. 

Into  Gehenna  it  is  dangerous  for  it  to 


RIGHT  USE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


197 


venture.  There  are  no  materials  there  for 
it  to  combine.  It  is  the  region  of  poverty, 
where  there  is  no  beauty  nor  satisfaction, 
no  variety  nor  expansion.  Imagination  must 
fail  here,  as  it  fails  to  compass  the  in¬ 
finitely  little  in  space,  which  yet  the  think¬ 
ing  mind  cannot  deny.  And  even  into 
Hades  imagination  must  cautiously  venture, 
for,  as  I  have  said,  it  is  almost  sure  to  carry 
this  present  world  with  it  in  such  an  en¬ 
terprise,  and  the  result  of  its  contemplation 
is  untrustworthy.  But  so  far  as  Paradise 
has  any  characteristics  of  the  ultimate 
Heaven,  in  the  loving  soul  and  the  expand¬ 
ing  intelligence,  it  may  furnish  material 
with  which  imagination  may  profitably 
deal.  Thus  those  who  mourn  departed 
ones  are  not  forbidden  to  think  of  them 
under  these  limitations,  and  to  think  of 
them  as  the  interceding  heart  requires. 

And  especially  may  imagination  find  its 
dearest  and  most  precious  use  in  recalling 
for  contemplation  the  image  of  Jesus 
Christ,  as  displayed  in  his  career,  his 
deeds,  and  his  words.  This  is  our  human 
brother,  the  tender,  sympathetic  one,  the 


198 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


suffering  and  yet  the  majestic  one.  This  is 
God’s  manifestation  of  himself  as  loving 
and  benignant,  as  beneficent  yet  severe. 
Imagination  can  do  no  better  thing  than  to 
fasten  securely  in  the  mind,  to  weave  this 
image  into  the  soul’s  own  structure. 

They  “  builded  better  than  they  knew,” 
perhaps,  these  evangelists,  who  so  recorded 
the  events  of  that  wonderful  career  as  to 
display  so  clearly  that  mind  and  heart,  now 
thought  as  human,  and  now  again  as  divine, 
but  rightly,  though  mystically,  in  the  union 
and  coalescence  of  the  divine  and  human, 
as  to  exhibit  that  character  to  which  human 
history  furnishes  nothing  like,  and  with 
such  attractiveness  that  the  deepest  abyss 
of  our  nature  is  reached,  and  wre  feel  our¬ 
selves  drawn  irresistibly  by  the  tender  com¬ 
pulsion  of  love,  to  meet  this  divine-human 
heart,  hardly  knowing,  when  we  yield,  that 
we  are  entering  upon  a  pathway  that  leads 
endlessly  upward. 

In  the  yielding  to  this  supreme  attraction 
the  will  represents,  not  the  transient  phase 
of  the  character,  but  the  original  constitu¬ 
ents  of  human  nature,  the  profound  pre- 


KXGHT  USE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


199 


dispositions  toward  the  good  with  which 
God  created  us,  and  which  through  evil 
had  been  turned  inward  upon  themselves, 
into  discord  and  confusion.  Imagination 
has  thus  enabled  this  easy  victory  of  the 
divine  love.  And  if  those  in  whom  this 
faculty  is  less  active  do  still,  from  moral 
and  mental  needs,  yield  to  the  truth  of 
Christ,  making  more  of  a  sacrifice  and  put¬ 
ting  forth  more  spiritual  strength— this 
shows  that  the  providence  of  God  and  the 
supplemented  activity  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
have  recognized  these  differences  in  human 
structure,  and  proportioned  their  environ¬ 
ment  and  their  influence  accordingly.  These 
differences  and  degrees  in  imaginative  power 
are  dependent  probably  upon  the  degrees  of 
fineness  in  the  physical  structure,  upon 
brain-conditions  merely.  When  the  souls 
are  emancipated  from  these,  and  subside 
into  a  purer  consciousness,  such  differences 
will  be  equalized  ;  and  all  will  be  alike  in 
possessing  the  immediate  intuition. 

Yet  the  differences  in  soul  structure,  en¬ 
abling  an  endless  variety  and  not  a  monot¬ 
onous  sameness  in  the  company  of  the  holy 


200 


MENS  CHRISTI. 


ones,  must  be  prolonged  into  the  heavenly 
life  itself.  How  to  explain  these  and  ex¬ 
hibit  as  possible  different  modes  of  activity, 
is  a  speculative  enquiry  into  which  I  will 
not  now  enter.  But  to  our  present  think¬ 
ing  imagination  will  still  be  exercised,  and 
acording  to  subjective  needs,  in  the  heav¬ 
enly  state.  The  spiritual  soul  will  still  con¬ 
stantly  objectify  itself,  and  infuse  itself 
into  that  which  it  contemplates  or  creates, 
into  the  endless  concretions  of  the  divine 
thought,  or  its  own  recombinations  of  the 
same,  into  the  spiritual  souls  which  will  not 
forbid,  which  will  freely  fuse  themselves 
together. 

Thus  we  see  that  human  imagination  is 
a  reflection  of  the  divine,  inasmuch  as  it 
is  the  ability  of  the  creature  to  do,  under, 
limitations  progressively  removed,  what  God 
does — to  live  in  and  enjoy  that  which  it 
creates.  Its  activity  is  one  element  of  the 
evidence  that  man  is  God  s  image.  Fiona 
the  reward  of  delight  which  its  normal  ac¬ 
tivity  brings  we  infer  that  the  sights  and 
sounds  of  the  material  universe  which  bring 
this  joy  are  not  dead  and  passsive  phenom- 


RIGHT  USE  OF  IMAGINATION. 


201 


ena,  are  not  transitory  things,  but  living 
and  everlasting ;  that  God  is  in  them,  and 
his  complacency  in  them,  that  they  are 
his  free  movement  and  not  necessitated  from 
anv  alien  source ;  that  their  blossoming 
into  that  wonderful  characteristic  of  beauty, 
which  we  seize  and  appropriate  with  such 
transport,  is  one  aspect  of  the  coalescence  of 
God  with  his  human  creature ;  that  we, 
too,  shall  have  unfettered  power  and  un¬ 
limited  resources,  and  that  for  this  we  were 
created. 


I 


